Things Musk (and Trump) Did... 04-14-25 | Blog#42
Captain Chaos' next demo project? Chips and meds.
Yesterday's post
Please support me by subscribing for $5 a month.
I publish this daily news post, updated all throughout the day (and night), every day. I publish it free to all because it is more important to me to keep us all informed
Yesterday’s News Worth Repeating
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
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
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
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
Trump backer Bill Ackman supports Cuomo’s mayoral bid with $250K donation
A super PAC boosting Andrew Cuomo has raised nearly $5M since March.
NEW YORK — Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a prominent supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, has donated $250,000 to a super PAC boosting Andrew Cuomo’s run for New York City mayor, new campaign finance filings show.
It’s the latest example of GOP-affiliated players getting behind New York’s Democratic former governor as he vies to replace Mayor Eric Adams.
Ackman’s contribution helped the pro-Cuomo Fix the City super PAC exceed $4.8 million in donations, while an effort to blunt Cuomo’s comeback is having a much tougher time. New Yorkers for Better Leadership reported a $1,000 contribution from climate tech investor Thomas O’Keefe — its first donation of $1,000 or more since forming March 11 to castigate Cuomo’s Albany record.
Other super PACs opposing Cuomo have also attracted only modest support. New Yorkers for Lower Costs, which favors democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, reported raising $56,500 through last week. And a group with the slogan “Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor” has just $10,500 in contributions of $1,000 or more.
Fix the City, meanwhile, has lured 71 major contributors since the beginning of March, according to disclosures filed Monday with the state Board of Elections. Over the past week, New York real estate developer brothers Kamran and Frederick Elghanayan of TF Cornerstone donated $25,000 each, cardboard magnate Dennis Mehiel gave $50,000 and Republican Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, who served as state treasurer under former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, gave $5,000.
Continue reading at Politico
Today's news
Democratic News Corner
Randy Villegas is mounting a challenge to GOP Rep. David Valadao
The majority-Latino district has shifted toward President Donald Trump, but Democrats are confident they can flip it.
The latest Democrat aiming to unseat Republican Rep. David Valadao isn’t trying to do it from the center.
Randy Villegas, a Visalia, California, school board trustee, is hoping economic populism will resonate in a swing district that continues to be a top Democratic target. He also plans to tie Valadao to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and GOP efforts to slash federal government.
Like other Democrats who have embraced an anti-corporate message in the aftermath of the 2024 election, his candidacy will represent a test of progressive messaging in a purple district.
“I’m running on an economic populist message,” Villegas said in a phone interview. “I think we need to have candidates who are willing to say that they’re going to stand up against corporate greed, that they are going to stand against corruption in government, and that they are going to stand against billionaires that are controlling the strings right now.”
Affiliated with the Working Families Party, Villegas could run to the left in a Democratic primary, though he said he would “hesitate to put any labels on myself.”
Continue reading at Politico
Former Michigan state lawmaker announces Democratic primary challenge against Rep. Shri Thanedar
This is Adam Hollier’s third bid for the House seat representing most of Detroit.
Former Michigan state Sen. Adam Hollier on Monday launched a Democratic primary challenge against two-term Rep. Shri Thanedar.
The announcement marks Hollier’s third attempt to secure the House seat representing most of Detroit. Hollier previously served as a Michigan state Senator from 2018 to 2022 and has also led the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“From housing to daycare to the rising costs of everything from groceries to the brakes on our cars, we’re in a real crisis in this country,” Hollier said in a press release announcing the run. “We need bold solutions and leaders who won’t back down in the face of this challenge.”
Thanedar, an Indian American Democrat, has held Detroit’s plurality-Black district since 2023. Hollier, who is Black, came up short to Thanedar in the 2022 primary and didn’t make it onto the ballot in 2024. Leaders within the Congressional Black Caucus have previously rallied around Hollier.
Thanedar, a multimillionaire, has largely self-funded his congressional bids since taking over the seat held by former Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence.
“The last thing we need are more millionaires and billionaires like Elon Musk and Shri Thanedar who are only in it for themselves,” Hollier said.
Continue reading at Politico
Andrew Cuomo gets labor nods in New York City mayor’s race
Unions 32BJ SEIU and HTC are endorsing the scandal-scarred former governor over his center-left opponents.
NEW YORK — Two powerful labor unions endorsed scandal-scarred Andrew Cuomo’s New York City mayoral bid Monday, providing organizational muscle and solidifying his front-runner status in the Democratic primary.
The labor groups 32BJ SEIU and Hotel and Gaming Trades Council — which represent building service workers and hotel and casino employees, respectively — are coveted by most candidates running in highly unionized New York City. Their backing for Cuomo in a rare joint endorsement follows Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement this month that he would forgo the Democratic primary to run as an independent. Both unions endorsed Adams in 2021.
That same year, hotel union President Rich Maroko said the sexual harassment allegations leveled against then-Gov. Cuomo were “disturbing” and called on him to resign, which he did.
The labor groups are now looking past the litany of scandals that drove Cuomo from office and their leaders’ prior calls for Cuomo’s resignation. On Monday, Maroko called Cuomo a “formidable leader” with a “proven history of effective government management.”
“His record as governor shows what’s possible when leadership puts working families first — and those are exactly the kinds of policy victories New Yorkers will need in the years ahead,” Maroko said.
Continue reading at Politico
Biden to deliver first public address since leaving White House
Former President Biden is set to deliver his first public address since leaving the White House, speaking at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) in Chicago on Tuesday, according to a release from the organization.
Biden will headline the event, which is set to focus on rallying bipartisan support for Social Security.
“We are deeply honored President Biden is making his first public appearance at ACRD’s sold-out conference,” Rachel Buck, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement announcing Biden’s participation.
“As bipartisan leaders have long agreed, Americans who retire after paying into Social Security their whole lives deserve the vital support and caring services they receive. As a result, we are thrilled the president will be joining us to discuss how we can work together for a stable and successful future for Social Security.”
The showing will make for the former president’s first public remarks since he left office in January — handing the White House back to President Trump, who has continued to blast his predecessor throughout his first few weeks in the Oval Office.
Continue reading at The Hill
Biden inches back into spotlight amid Trump’s tariff-induced economic chaos
Not every Democrat is thrilled about it.
Joe Biden is inching back onto the national stage.
On Tuesday, the former president will deliver a speech to disability advocates in Chicago focused on protecting Social Security and Republicans’ attempts to attack it, according to two former administration officials granted anonymity to discuss the remarks.
It’s the third public appearance Biden has made in recent weeks, drawing the understated contours of his post-presidency into focus. Earlier this month, Biden became an honorary member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, speaking to more than 1,000 members in Washington, D.C. and he dropped in on the Model United Nations conference in New York City in March. He’s also working on another book, according to the officials.
It’s a politically convenient moment for Biden to reemerge, as President Donald Trump’s tariff whiplash has upended the economy and Trump has seen his own popularity plunge in public polling. A CBS survey released Sunday found nearly two-thirds of voters oppose Trump’s tariffs, and a majority blamed Trump, not Biden, as responsible for the state of the American economy.
Even so, many Democrats are not eager to see Biden back in the public eye. One former Biden donor and bundler, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, said the speeches are “fine” because “that’s what you expect a former president to do, but I don’t anticipate crowds of Democrats wanting him as a focal point of the national conversation.”
“It takes a special level of chutzpah as the man most responsible for reelecting Donald Trump to decide it’s your voice that is missing in this moment,” said another person who worked closely with the Biden campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “The country would be better served if he rode off into the sunset.”
Biden has largely returned to the schedule he maintained as a senator, commuting to Washington from Delaware, often by Amtrak, about twice a week, according to one of the former officials. He’s also catching up with former aides and checking in with members of Congress, the person added.
Biden met with Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin in February, and the DNC sent a Biden-signed fundraising email last month.
Continue reading at Politico
National Security
North Korea is making what could be its largest, most advanced warship ever, new satellite photos show
Seoul, South Korea
CNN —
New satellite images show what could be North Korea’s biggest warship ever – possibly more than double the size of anything in leader Kim Jong Un’s naval fleet.
Images taken by independent satellite providers Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs on April 6 show the ship under construction in the water at the Nampo shipyard on North Korea’s west coast, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of the capital Pyongyang.
Analysts say the pictures show ongoing construction of weapons and other internal systems of the ship, which is likely a guided-missile frigate (FFG) designed to carry missiles in vertical launch tubes for use against targets on land and sea.
“The FFG is approximately 140 meters (459 feet) long, making it the largest warship manufactured in North Korea,” an analysis by Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said.
For comparison, the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are about 505 feet long and its under-construction Constellation-class frigates will be 496 feet long.
The existence of the warship is not a surprise.
The Kim regime has been engaged in a rapid modernization of its armed forces, developing a range of new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States.
It’s done that despite United Nations sanctions that have puts strict limits on its access to the materials and technology to develop those weapons.
Continue reading at CNN.com
US Army to control land on Mexico border as part of base, migrants could be detained, officials say
WASHINGTON (AP) — A long sliver of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Donald Trump is turning over to the Department of Defense would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, which could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants, U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
The transfer of that border zone to military control — and making it part of an Army installation — is an attempt by the Trump administration to get around a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement on American soil.
But if the troops are providing security for land that is part of an Army base, they can perform that function. However, at least one presidential powers expert said the move is likely to be challenged in the courts.
The officials said the issue is still under review in the Pentagon, but even as any legal review goes on, the administration’s intent is to have troops detain migrants at the border.
Continue reading at the AP
Bukele’s big day in Washington
There seems to be no stopping the blossoming bromance between Salvadoran President NAYIB BUKELE and President DONALD TRUMP as the Central American leader gets a red carpet welcome during his visit to Washington.
Trump met with Bukele (who we should note wasn’t wearing a tie) in the Oval Office. There, both leaders insisted that they wouldn’t work to release a Salvadoran national who the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision was unconstitutionally deported back to El Salvador in contravention of a court order. They also spoke in lighthearted terms about Bukele’s indiscriminate use of incarceration to combat gangs in the country.
Behind the scenes, the Salvadoran government is also pitching partnerships with U.S. security companies to receive even more deportations from the United States.
It’s all a dramatic reversal from how Bukele was treated by the Biden administration, which worked with El Salvador in private on migration, but largely kept Bukele at arms length in public — at least in part because of queasiness about human rights violations stemming from the crackdown on gangs.
A former U.S. official, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the U.S.-El Salvador relationship, said San Salvador had been keen to wait out the Biden administration, which it saw as “cultural adversaries,” in the hopes that Trump or another friendly U.S. leader would enter the White House. That appears to have been a prescient call.
Bukele, his detractors insist, is still an autocrat who has squashed the Central American country’s fragile democratic institutions. Bukele has also faced criticism from the right for not doing enough to reduce his country’s economic ties with China.
On Capitol Hill, there’s unease over the terms of the secret deal governing deportations to El Salvador’s highly secure prisons and other counter-migration cooperation. Democrats are hammering the administration over the secrecy surrounding the deal between the Trump administration and Bukele, according to a copy of a letter sent from eight lawmakers to Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO that we obtained. In that letter, the lawmakers requested a “full accounting of the agreement” including its length, if there is a limit on the number of detainees El Salvador would take from the United States and what access those detainees have to due process.
The letter, led by Rep. JIM McGOVERN (D-Mass.), also outlines allegations that Bukele himself has colluded with El Salvadoran gangs including MS-13 and Barrio 18, citing previous Treasury Department and Justice Department findings.
They voiced concern that the agreement “would not only implicate the United States in grave human rights violations but undermine U.S. national security.”
Continue reading Politico’s National Security Daily newsletter
‘Honey badger’ admiral emerges as top contender for Navy chief
Adm. Daryl Caudle has spent the past two weeks meeting with senators.
Adm. Daryl Caudle — a longtime admiral who has demanded accountability from America’s ailing shipbuilding industry — has emerged as the front-runner for the Navy’s top officer post, according to five people with knowledge of the process.
The likely selection of Caudle, a four-star admiral who heads the command that trains and equips the Navy’s sailors, comes just two months after President Donald Trump fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female in that role. He terminated her in an abrupt purge of top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown.
A three-decade Navy officer who has commanded submarine fleets, Caudle could prove a fairly safe choice. Unlike Navy Secretary John Phelan, he has significant Pentagon experience. Democrats, who are angry about Franchetti’s sudden dismissal, may find it harder to oppose a well-regarded career officer.
“He’s a no-nonsense guy, you can’t bullshit him,” said one former Navy colleague, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “He goes and finds problems, he turns over the rock, and whatever’s underneath it, he chews it up, spits it out and comes back.”
Caudle, if selected, would inherit a fleet that has struggled with embarrassing and costly shipbuilding delays and which is now 14 times smaller than China’s. He would join as Phelan is examining what to cut in the service’s contracts and as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency investigates the Navy’s shipbuilding efforts.
Continue reading at Politico
The future of U.S. security is today taking shape in Texas
Officials from the Trump, Biden, Obama and Bush administrations, defense and intelligence experts, lawmakers, scientists, and investors are huddling in Texas this week to plot American primacy amid a global realignment.
Why it matters: Michael Kratsios, Trump's chief science-and-technology policy adviser, in an interview said U.S. national and economic security is contingent on "technological dominance." He delivered his first public address at the Endless Frontiers summit Monday — its only on-the-record segment.
"This isn't some movie where we sit back and watch the future happen," Kratsios told Axios. "It's something that we have to actively be participants in."
Trump in a letter last month called on Kratsios to "blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science." It mentioned artificial intelligence, quantum and nuclear tech.
Zoom out: The 200-plus attendees of Endless Frontiers (invite only) will leave with a game plan addressing:
A tech-savvy U.S. arsenal.
Reindustrialization, secure supply chains and critical infrastructure.
Government competitiveness and mobilization of national talent.
What we're hearing: The get-together comes at a precarious time, both at home and abroad.
Continue reading at Axios
Economics
Trump: Semiconductor tariffs coming, but ‘You have to show a certain flexibility’
President Trump said Sunday that he would be announcing tariffs on semiconductors soon, though he suggested there could be exceptions for certain products.
“The tariffs will be in place in the not distant future. Because, as you know, like we did with steel, like we did with automobiles, like we did with aluminum, which are now fully on, we’ll be doing that with semiconductors, with chips and numerous other things,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“And that’ll take place in the very near future.”
The goal, Trump said, is to incentivize companies to make their products in the United States. But experts have warned that could be a lengthy process and that the price of electronics could go up for consumers.
Asked if certain products like iPhones and tablets would be tariffed, Trump said he would be discussing it with companies.
“You know, you have to show a certain flexibility. Nobody should be so rigid. We have to have a certain flexibility. And we’re doing really well. And financially, our country is going to be stronger than it’s ever been,” Trump said.
Trump would not say which products this flexibility might apply to.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump says he'll announce new chips tariffs over the next week
Why it matters: The White House indicated on Friday that smartphones and computers would be exempted from the 125% import levies Trump imposed on China, where Apple assembles most of its iPhones.
Driving the news: The White House on Friday listed semiconductors as "excepted products" from China import levies in a memorandum titled "Clarification of Exceptions Under Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025, as Amended."
However, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told ABC News Sunday the relief for smartphones and other electronics was only temporary.
What he's saying: Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled back to D.C. from Mar-a-Lago administration officials would discuss tariffs on products like iPhones and tablets with companies "because you have to show a certain flexibility, nobody should be so rigid."
When asked if there would be flexibility for some products, Trump replied: "For some products." He declined to say which ones.
Trump earlier Sunday denied in a Truth Social post that a tariff exception had been made on Friday and said administration officials were "taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations."
Continue reading at Axios
China's Xi says tariffs war "will produce no winner"
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said nations need to "safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment" in an article published in China and Vietnam on Monday.
Why it matters: Xi is trying to portray China as a "responsible superpower in the way that contrasts with the way the U.S." under President Trump "presents to the whole world," said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore's ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute to AP.
What they're saying: "Trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere," said Xi, who did not name the U.S. nor Trump in the editorial that was published as he visits Vietnam.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump has vowed to bring down housing costs. What is his administration doing?
Though the Trump administration has stressed home ownership as “a ticket to the American dream” as it attempts to herald in “the golden age of America,” housing has appeared to take somewhat of a backseat to the issues of foreign policy and the border in the opening months of the president’s second term. And some of his moves on those fronts — like levying tariffs and upping deportations — risk contributing to higher costs and hurdles to homeownership for everyday Americans.
“You could have maybe imagined a world where Trump, with his history as a developer, might have had common cause with housing advocates who think that we need to build more housing,” said Katherine Einstein, associate political science professor at Boston University and a leader of the Housing Politics Lab.
But Trump’s first administration didn’t seem to make housing affordability much of a priority either, Einstein said, and the signals so far from his second term “leave me profoundly pessimistic about whether fair housing law will continue to be enforced, and whether we’ll see fewer federal funding for the production of new housing.”
High housing costs and mortgage rates have hampered prospective buyers from jumping into the squeezed market, even as areas across the country are struggling to keep up with demand. Pending home sales, based on the signed contracts for existing homes, hit a record low at the start of the year.
Meanwhile, homelessness in the U.S. hit its highest level on record in 2024. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) tallied more than 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night, an 18 percent increase from 2023.
In plain terms, the country is “facing a housing crisis,” Einstein said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump's hardline stance
Business leaders are calling and back-channeling President Trump to dump on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, trade adviser Peter Navarro and their pro-tariff views, hoping to end the trade war.
Why it matters: Make no mistake: Trump is wholly unmoved, top White House officials tell Axios' Marc Caputo. This is his disruptive policy, done his disruptive way. "This is the team," one said.
The Trump administration is trying to present a unified front as it implements its controversial tariff policies that have rocked financial markets. Officials loathe palace-intrigue stories that make the team look divided.
CEOs want the Treasury-Secretary-Scott-Bessent-on-truth-serum approach. But they keep running into the reality that Trump is more Navarro.
Behind the scenes: Lutnick and Navarro both appeared on Sunday shows yesterday because the White House team wanted to push back on reports that the two had been bucked in rank or sidelined, senior officials tell Caputo.
"We wanted Howard out there. We wanted Peter out there to deliver the message and call bulls**t," one of the advisers said.
Continue reading at Axios
America's shadow economy shrinks due to deportation fears
Pockets of the U.S. economy — from landscaping to elder care to restaurants — depend on the labor of undocumented immigrants to stay afloat.
But the vast shadow workforce extends beyond them. It includes legal immigrants with work restrictions, like students and asylum seekers.
Why it matters: Immigration crackdowns under the Trump administration are spreading fear — causing people to skip work, straining businesses, and leaving families without income.
The latest: Anxiety is rising among undocumented workers after the IRS agreed to share data with ICE, leaving many worried that paying taxes could now be used against them.
While President Trump's deportation drive is focused on undocumented immigrants, visa holders can also potentially be deported for working illegally.
Short of that, they can be barred from returning to the U.S. once they leave or denied permanent residency.
By the numbers: There are more than 8 million unauthorized immigrants in the workforce, Pew estimates. And the true number of people working while bending the rules is likely higher than that.
“We know that some people on legal, temporary visas work even when it is not permitted, such as people coming as tourists but working for ride share companies or student visa holders getting side jobs off campus as babysitters or in restaurants,” Julia Gelatt of the Migration Policy Institute tells Axios.
Continue reading at Axios
Pew Research Center: What we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S.
Markets revisit familiar ground, and that has investors jittery
Stocks, Treasury bonds, and the dollar are all trading at levels seen in the waning months of the Biden administration, when they caused almost no panic or hand-wringing.
Why it matters: Optimists will say this means nothing very serious is happening. Pessimists will say it just means that all three markets have much further to fall.
Where it stands: Compare Friday's close to where markets were at eight months ago, on Aug. 9, 2024.
The S&P 500 closed at 5,363, which means that it has risen 0.4% over eight months. (Thanks to the weekend's news, it'll be higher still today.)
The euro/dollar exchange rate closed at $1.13 on Friday, up a modest 4 cents from $1.09 in August.
The 10-year Treasury bond now yields 4.5%. That's substantially higher than its August yield of 3.95%, but it's the exact level it was at 11 months ago, in May. Indeed, the benchmark Treasury has closed at or above 4.5% in 23% of trading sessions over the past 18 months.
Between the lines: Market commentary is panicky and jittery for four good reasons.
The bear market: Thanks to the euphoria of Trump's early weeks in office, various markets including the Nasdaq last week fell to more than 20% below their all-time highs. When market watchers talk of levels like that as being "psychologically important," they're not downplaying them. In markets, psychology — what Keynes called "animal spirits" — matters a lot.
Volatility: We've seen a sequence of massive moves in the stock market, which has never felt less predictable or more uncertain. While no one knows where we'll go next, it's clear that even bigger moves, especially to the downside, are well within the realm of possibility.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump, tariffs and a world in transition: Brace for the in-between
The coming weeks, months, and maybe even years are going to be uncomfortably liminal — an awkward period of transition to a new state of international affairs whose contours and even arrival date remain unknowable.
Why it matters: Liminal periods are, almost by design, excruciating places to inhabit — especially when you don't know when you're going to exit them and come out the other side.
We all learned that lesson the hard way during the pandemic; now we're learning it again.
Where it stands: The reciprocal tariffs on all countries except for China are paused for 90 days — at which point no one knows what will happen.
The tariffs on Chinese exports of smartphones and various other electronics are similarly on hold for maybe just a month or so, per Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday.
President Trump said in a Truth Social post that "There was no Tariff "exception" announced on Friday" — notwithstanding the fact that the word "Exceptions" is literally in the headline of his own executive order.
The big picture: A rite of passage, as defined by French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in 1909, begins with a rite of disengagement where the old order is ended. That's followed, crucially, by a liminal period — the state of transition from one status to another. Finally comes the catharsis: the all-important rite of reengagement, where the new order begins.
President Trump's Liberation Day, on April 2, was presented as a rite of re-engagement — the first day of the new order. In reality, however, it acted more as a rite of disengagement from the old globalist system.
We're now in a liminal period, with no real idea what the final end-state is going to look like, or when that's going to happen.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump’s showdown with China deepens, with huge stakes for the economy
President Donald Trump is heading into another volatile week of his trade wars facing an urgent need to de-escalate the clash he ignited with China before it inflicts deep damage on the US economy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is so far declining US pressure to call his American counterpart to seek a “deal” after the United States imposed 145% tariffs on its superpower rival, setting off a long-feared direct confrontation.
This leaves Trump repeatedly assuring Americans that his “great relationship” with the Chinese leader will head off a crisis but unable to initiate talks in a standoff that risks tanking stock markets again and imposing real hardships on Americans.
Despite the uncertainty, Trump is putting on a show of relishing multiple fights he set off, and he lapped up a standing ovation as he took a seat cage-side at a UFC mixed martial arts event in Florida on Saturday night. The president, who styles himself as an ultimate political fighter, told reporters his reception was “somewhat legendary” and showed that “we’re doing a good job.”
But the president’s conflict with China is a real-world showdown with far higher stakes.
The impasse is so serious because the US and Chinese economies are intricately entwined. The US relies on China for consumer electronics; rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of electric vehicles and for military applications and robotics; pharmaceuticals used in lifesaving medicines; and more basic staples of daily life, including clothing and shoes. US exports of produce like soybeans and sorghum to China are vital to the livelihoods of American farmers, but the tariffs imposed by both sides are so prohibitive that trade may effectively grind to a halt.
Both sides could suffer terribly in a full-blown trade war, and US consumers could be hit by shortages and surging prices. But some experts believe that China, owing to its authoritarian system of government, would be willing to impose more pain on its populace to avoid losing what could be a defining struggle with the US.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Japan prime minister cautions against major concessions in US trade talks
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Monday his country does not intend to make major concessions in its trade talks with the United States later this week.
“I’m not of the view that we should make big concessions for the sake of wrapping up negotiations quickly,” Ishiba told a session of Parliament, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
The United States earlier this month announced a 10 percent baseline tariff and additional higher tariffs on imports from scores of nations, including a 24 percent levy on Japanese imports. The higher “reciprocal” tariff rate was lowered to 10 percent for most nations, including Japan, for 90 days, to allow countries time to negotiate with the Trump administration.
President Trump’s 25 percent tariff on auto imports is still in place and dealt a hefty blow to the Japanese economy, which is heavily reliant on exports, about 30 percent of which reportedly come from the auto industry.
Japan is among the first countries with which the Trump administration said it will begin negotiations. Ishiba is sending Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s economic revitalization minister, to Washington on Thursday to begin talks.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘Absolutely paralyzed’: Wall Street dealmaking stalls over Trump trade war
Industry leaders are warning that the fallout from the market volatility and the slowdown in deals will be felt beyond the financial world.
President Donald Trump’s election was supposed to give rise to a bonanza of companies listing shares on U.S. stock exchanges, raising money and striking deals, in what would have been a welcome rush of activity for the financial world.
Yet, five months later, Trump’s sweeping trade war is freezing up the deal markets instead — and bankers say there is little chance of a thaw any time soon. The ticketing giant StubHub, financial technology firm Klarna and upstart trading platform eToro all recently hit pause on their plans to sell shares to the public. And executives are feeling uneasy about making investment decisions, portending what could be a protracted slowdown to corporate mergers and acquisitions.
“People are absolutely paralyzed,” said West Riggs, head of equity capital markets at Truist Securities. “We’re going to have to see things calm down and calm down for some period of time. It’s weeks or months — not days.”
The deal markets’ struggles underscore how the Trump administration’s head-spinning moves on tariffs and the subsequent scramble to strike new trade deals have petrified C-suite executives.
Across corporate America, companies are trying to grasp what the levies could mean for their supply chains, investments and future earnings — to say nothing of the uncertainty over where things will stand after Trump’s 90-day pause on his “reciprocal” tariffs. And Wall Street leaders warn that the fallout in the markets will reach well beyond the financial world.
“This isn’t Wall Street versus Main Street,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Friday. “The market downturn impacts millions of ordinary people’s retirement savings.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon — who caught Trump’s ear last week by warning about a potential recession — told reporters Friday that the pullback on dealmaking is “not just big ones, but middle-market companies,” too.
Riggs cautioned that if capital formation is frozen, so is business formation and growth.
Continue reading at Politico
Why U.S. oil production could even go into reverse
The prospect of U.S. oil production growth not just stalling but going into reverse is edging into the picture.
Why it matters: The price drop and trade policy uncertainty might spur a decline this year or next despite Trump officials' goal of boosting output.
It would be a striking example of how President Trump's trade policies hit the sector that embraces other parts of his agenda.
"At these prices, we would not be surprised to see U.S. oil output decline this year," Barclays' Amarpreet Singh said in a note Friday.
While Trump has paused big new tariffs on many countries, the baseline 10% remains, and he imposed massive levies on China.
And what happens after the 90-day pause announced last week is a mystery. So is the hit to demand growth from economic headwinds.
State of play: Even before the April 2 tariff announcement, analysts were predicting rather modest 2025 growth from world-leading levels.
Most outlooks still project a small rise. But it's looking wobbly.
Continue reading at Axios
What to know about early 401(k) withdrawals
Early withdrawals occur for those younger than 59 1/2
If you withdraw from your 401(k) early, you're subject to a 10% fee
401(k) loans are an alternative to cashing out early
As of September last year, $8.9 trillion was sitting in 401(k) retirement accounts, according to the Investment Company Institute, an investment association.
The association reports that more than 715,000 people have 401(k) plans, which are employer-sponsored retirement savings accounts.
Typically, account holders wait until they’re in retirement to withdraw the funds — but some may find themselves needing to access the money early.
All withdrawals, early or not, are taxed as ordinary income, but early withdrawals are subject to a 10% fee.
The Internal Revenue Service considers “early” withdrawals before the age of 59 1/2.
Financial experts recommend against withdrawing from a 401(k) plan early.
Continue reading at The Hill
Yellen sees ‘very worrisome’ pattern in Treasurys sell-off
Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said economic uncertainty around President Trump’s whiplash tariff policies has prompted a “really very worrisome” trend for dollar-based assets.
“We saw a very unusual pattern over the last couple of weeks in financial market developments,” Yellen said during a Monday morning appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I don’t think we’re seeing dysfunction in the sense of liquidity completely drying up in the markets, but a pattern suggestive of a loss of confidence in U.S. economic policy.”
“The safety of bedrock financial assets is really very worrisome,” she added.
Treasurys sold off sharply last week amid fears of weaker foreign demand for U.S. debt.
Continue reading at The Hill
Medicaid fight could come to a head in early May under GOP timeline
The House committee tasked with slashing $880 billion is readying to put its plans on paper.
One of the most closely watched parts of the GOP’s sprawling domestic policy bill could start coming together in less than a month.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee could meet as soon as the week of May 5 to begin marking up its portion of the party-line package central to President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to nine people with granted anonymity to describe private deliberations.
The panel is tasked with making $880 billion in spending cuts from the programs under its jurisdiction — including Medicaid, the joint federal-state safety net program for health care.
The size and shape of those cuts emerged as a major flash point for Republicans as they haggled over the budget framework for the megabill, which is set to include tax cuts, beefed-up border security, energy policy and more. That blueprint, finalized last week, set a May 9 target for committees to finish their markups, though that is not a binding deadline.
House GOP leaders are also pushing for the Agriculture Committee — which has been ordered to cut $230 billion, likely from the country’s largest food assistance program for low-income Americans — and several other panels to hold their markups the first week of May, according to three other Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter.
Continue reading at Politico
Nvidia pledges $500 billion to manufacture AI chips, supercomputers in US
Nvidia will manufacture up to $500 billion of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and supercomputers entirely in the U.S. over the next four years, the company announced Monday.
The move comes amid President Trump’s ongoing trade war and push to get companies to move their manufacturing and assembly process to the U.S. It marks the first time that Nvidia AI supercomputers will be made entirely in America, the company said.
The AI chipmaker said it commissioned more than a million square feet to build Nvidia Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas.
“Adding American manufacturing helps us better meet the incredible and growing demand for AI chips and supercomputers, strengthens our supply chain and boosts our resiliency,” Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said in a release Monday.
Nvidia said it is being assisted by partners like TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited), with the company’s Blackwell chips already being produced at TSMC’s chip plants in Phoenix.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump looking at tariff exemptions ‘to help some of the car companies’
President Trump indicated Monday he is considering tariff exemptions to give relief to car companies as they work to reconfigure their supply chains, marking the latest potential adjustment to his tariff policies.
“I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies where they’re switching to parts that were made in Canada, Mexico and other places,” Trump said when asked in the Oval Office about “short-lived” tariff exemptions. “And they need a little bit of time. Because they’re going to make them here. But they need a little bit of time. So I’m talking about things like that.”
Asked about potential exemptions for Apple products, Trump did not get into specifics but defended his shifting tariff announcements as a sign of flexibility.
“Look, I’m a very flexible person. I don’t change my mind, but I’m flexible. And you have to be. You just can’t have a wall and you’ll only go — no, sometimes you have to go around it, under it or above it,” Trump said before name-dropping the Apple CEO. “There’ll be maybe things coming up. I speak to Tim Cook; I helped Tim Cook recently, and that whole business. I don’t want to hurt anybody.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Fed data: Consumers see big, but fleeting tariff inflation spike
Americans believe inflation will surge in the months ahead as tariffs take effect. The good news: Consumers see those rapid price increases as fleeting — not a permanent shock to the economy.
Why it matters: Speak with any top Fed official, and they will warn of the worst possible outcome from White House trade policy — consumers consistently expect higher prices in a way that becomes self-fulfilling and keeps inflation headed upward.
For now, that is not playing out. Instead, consumers expect the trade war will result in something akin to an increasingly steep one-time price hike, but they anticipate that will recede over the long term.
What's new: Median inflation expectations for the year ahead surged by 0.5 percentage point to 3.6% in March. That's the highest level and biggest monthly increase since 2023, according to the New York Fed's latest Survey of Consumer Expectations.
But that staggering rise was not reflected across longer-term horizons. Inflation expectations held at 3% over the next three years and dropped slightly to 2.9% over the next five years.
The big picture: This is the ideal dynamic for the Fed — as long as it sticks. Fed officials would be more hesitant to respond to weaker economic conditions if they fear consumers expect high inflation to become a more persistent feature of the economy.
What they're saying: "While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent," Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said in a speech earlier this month.
Continue reading at Axios
White House launches national security investigation into pharma, semiconductors
The Trump administration disclosed Monday that it had opened an investigation into the effects on national security of importing certain pharmaceuticals, a move widely seen as the prelude to initiating tariffs on prescription drugs.
The Department of Commerce in a Federal Register notice said the probe, known as a Section 232 investigation, began April 1, the day before President Trump announced widespread tariffs on all imported goods but specifically exempted pharmaceuticals.
Section 232 investigations allow the president to restrict imports deemed a threat to national security. Trump last week said he will impose “a major tariff” on prescription drug imports in the coming weeks.
According to the notice, the investigation “includes both finished generic and non-generic drug products, medical countermeasures, critical inputs such as active pharmaceutical ingredients and key starting materials, and derivative products of those items.”
The probe will examine specific issues, including current and projected demand for pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients in the U.S.; the role of foreign supply chains, particularly of major exporters, in meeting U.S. demand for pharmaceuticals; the concentration of imports from a small number of suppliers and any associated risks; and the feasibility of increasing domestic capacity for pharmaceuticals and ingredients.
A typical Section 232 investigation takes 270 days before a report is given to the president, but the public comments on the notice are due just three weeks from the official April 16 publication date, an indication the investigation will move much quicker.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration nearing pharma tariffs plan
The Trump administration on Monday took a step toward enacting its aims to tariff pharmaceutical imports, disclosing plans to carry out an investigation into the effects on national security of importing certain pharmaceuticals.
The U.S. Department of Commerce in a Federal Register notice said the probe, known as a Section 232 investigation, began April 1, the day before President Trump announced widespread tariffs on all imported goods but specifically exempted pharmaceuticals.
According to the notice, the investigation “includes both finished generic and non-generic drug products, medical countermeasures, critical inputs such as active pharmaceutical ingredients and key starting materials, and derivative products of those items.”
This investigation is a likely prelude to Trump’s tariffs to come.
Section 232 investigations allow the president to restrict imports deemed a threat to national security. Trump last week said he will impose “a major tariff” on prescription drug imports in the coming weeks.
A typical investigation takes 270 days before a report is given to the president, but public comments on the notice are due just three weeks from the official April 16 publication date, an indication the investigation will move much quicker.
Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs has put the industry on edge, with experts warning the plan could disrupt global supply chains.
“Our concern is actually less about price increases because [of] the tariffs and more about generic manufacturers dropping out of the market,” which would exacerbate existing shortages, Tom Kraus, vice president of government relations for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, told The Hill.
Continue reading at The Hill
Agriculture Department cancels $3B grant program for climate-friendly crops
The Trump administration canceled a $3.1 billion grant program for climate-friendly crops, the Agriculture Department announced Monday.
In a press release, the department said that it was canceling Biden-era Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which funded 141 projects that sought to advance climate-friendly farming practices.
Projects funded under the program supported things like planting cover crops, which prevent soil erosion, and managing soil nutrients to minimize farming’s environmental impacts.
The Biden administration estimated that the program would reach more than 60,000 farms and cut more than 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of taking 12 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year.
However, the Trump administration said that most of the projects “had sky-high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers.”
It also said that “select projects” could continue if they can show that a “significant” amount of their funds will go to farmers.
“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a written statement.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump’s spending cuts
White House prepares rescission package
The White House is planning to ask Congress to approve more than $9 billion in funding cuts to a list of agencies President Trump has sought to eliminate.
That includes money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees PBS and NPR, money for USAID and agencies like the U.S. Institute of Peace, which Trump aimed to dismantle via an executive order signed in February.
The request cites various aspects of funding used by those organizations that do not align with the Trump administration’s priorities. It cites a PBS program from 2022 titled “Our League” about a transgender woman who comes out to members of their bowling league in Ohio.
It also cites numerous examples of funding from the State Department and USAID to be cut that are not in line with Trump’s agenda. Among those are $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda, $750,000 for reducing xenophobia in Venezuela, and $3 million for a children’s developmental television program in Iraq.
A White House official confirmed to The Hill that the package will be sent to Congress when lawmakers return from Easter recess.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump’s economic tumult tests the oil industry’s patience
The president’s trade war has unnerved investors and executives — and could undermine his pledge to unleash “energy dominance.”
The U.S. oil industry is suffering from the lowest crude prices in years, surging costs for steel and an economic downturn that could send consumer demand for its products plummeting.
Oil prices have tumbled nearly 15 percent since April 2 to their lowest level since April 2021, a drop that is testing oil executives’ patience. And it’s prompting some in the industry to warn the White House that Trump’s trade policy risks killing his plan for “energy dominance.”
So far, though, the sector is sticking with its support of President Donald Trump, hoping that his calls to negotiate trade pacts with individual countries to avoid tariffs and Republicans’ plan to extend tax cuts would offset their financial pain.
The industry’s reluctance to publicly criticize Trump is noteworthy given the pain it is feeling from the import taxes he’s hiked on the steel that oil companies need for new pipelines and projects, as well as the anger from the foreign buyers of their energy that his trade war has generated.
“Trump’s tariff gamble places energy dominance at a crossroads,” said one oil company executive who had donated to the Trump election campaign and was granted anonymity to speak frankly on the subject. “Striking a delicate balance between trade toughness and market stability will determine whether the U.S. maintains its edge — or risks undermining the very dominance it seeks.”
Continue reading at Politico
Big Tech does a delicate dance as Trump tariffs loom
Big Tech is doing a delicate dance as it attempts to sidestep the harshest aspects of President Trump's trade war.
Why it matters: The U.S. tech sector is heavily reliant on cheap imports of smartphones, other consumer electronics and AI chips.
Driving the news: Nvidia Monday committed to invest up to $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure, including two new factories to build supercomputers, via several partnerships.
This follows Apple's announcement less than two months ago that it would invest $500 billion of its own in the U.S.
The big picture: Though analysts debate whether recent moves were already in the pipeline, the announcements could help the companies avoid the worst impacts from Trump's tariffs.
Case in point: Trump claimed credit for today's Nvidia investment.
"The reason they did it was because of the election on Nov. 5 and because of a thing called tariffs," he told reporters today.
He did the same back in February following Apple's announcement. And this weekend Apple appeared to secure an exemption for smartphones and laptops from Trump's 125% tariffs on Chinese products. (The administration clarified that the relief was temporary, though analysts say the reprieve will probably culminate in lower duties.)
Between the lines: Effort seems to matter. Monday, from the Oval Office, Trump signaled to reporters that he was considering a break in tariffs for auto companies that were committing to supply chain changes. "They need a little bit of time because they're going to make [parts] here, but they need a little bit of time. So I'm talking about things like that."
Continue reading at Axios
What to know about taxes, extensions and refunds for Tax Day 2025
The deadline to file federal income tax returns and extensions to the Internal Revenue Service is Tuesday for most of the country.
Why it matters: Despite layoffs and DOGE cuts, the IRS is processing tax returns and refunds at a similar pace to last year.
Timothy Wingate Jr., an Intuit tax expert, told Axios that "we haven't felt any major impact from refund delays" because of IRS staffing cuts.
The Washington Post reported that Treasury Department and IRS officials predict a decrease of more than 10% in tax receipts or more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue, compared with last year.
Last day to file taxes
April 15 has been the traditional tax filing deadline since 1954, with exceptions for when the date falls on the weekend.
Due to the pandemic, the Treasury Department and IRS delayed the deadline in both 2020 and 2021.
The calendar pushed the 2022 and 2023 due dates, but 2024 was the first time since 2019 that Tax Day fell on April 15.
States that have extra time for filing taxes
Continue reading at Axios
Spring drought threatens Europe’s farms and rivers
Central and Eastern European countries are missing April showers, creating possible trouble for supply chains and farmers.
BRUSSELS — From the front lines in Ukraine to ordinarily damp Belgium, a shortage of rainfall has left much of Europe parched halfway through spring.
The early drought spells trouble for supply chains and farmers — with potential knock-on effects for industry, trade and global food security, adding to the economic turmoil triggered by Donald Trump’s erratic tariff announcements.
The European Drought Observatory’s most recent update from mid-March places parts of Poland, Ukraine, Greece, the Balkans, Sweden, Ireland, Germany and more in its orange “warning” category, while the southeastern Spanish coast is already on red alert.
While factors such as water mismanagement contribute to dry conditions, scientists say that the effects of man-made climate change, which include increasingly irregular rainfall patterns and hotter temperatures, will lead to worse and more frequent droughts in Europe.
A lack of rainfall combined with unseasonably warm weather — the continent experienced its hottest March on record last month — is driving this current drought, said the observatory’s lead researcher, Andrea Toreti.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
FEMA denies Washington state disaster relief from bomb cyclone, governor says
“This is another troubling example of the federal government withholding funding,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said
Ferguson said in a news release on Monday that the state’s January application for assistance was denied in a letter he received on Friday. The state’s application had met all of the criteria necessary to qualify, he said.
“This is another troubling example of the federal government withholding funding,” Ferguson, a Democrat, said. “Washington communities have been waiting for months for the resources they need to fully recover from last winter’s devastating storms, and this decision will cause further delay. We will appeal.”
The November storm system battered the state with strong winds and rain that caused widespread damage and power outages, and toppled trees that killed at least two people. It was considered a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. Bomb cyclones have been associated with major weather events across the country including hurricanes in recent years.
After Washington’s storms, then-Gov. Jay Inslee issued a disaster declaration in 11 counties — including where Seattle is located — and filed the application for disaster relief with FEMA to repair damage to public highways, public utilities and electrical power systems.
FEMA’s letter denying the application didn’t give an explanation and said the assistance was “not warranted.” The state has 30 days to appeal.
The denial comes as FEMA’s future is in question. President Donald Trump has questioned whether to disband it entirely and give money directly to states to handle disasters. Trump has created a council to study what to do with FEMA and whether to get rid of it.
Continue reading at Politico
Medicaid fight could come to a head in early May under GOP timeline
The House committee tasked with slashing $880 billion is readying to put its plans on paper.
One of the most closely watched parts of the GOP’s sprawling domestic policy bill could start coming together in less than a month.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee could meet as soon as the week of May 5 to begin marking up its portion of the party-line package central to President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to nine people with granted anonymity to describe private deliberations.
The panel is tasked with making $880 billion in spending cuts from the programs under its jurisdiction — including Medicaid, the joint federal-state safety net program for health care.
The size and shape of those cuts emerged as a major flash point for Republicans as they haggled over the budget framework for the mega bill, which is set to include tax cuts, beefed-up border security, energy policy and more. That blueprint, finalized last week, set a May 9 target for committees to finish their markups, though that is not a binding deadline.
House GOP leaders are also pushing for the Agriculture Committee — which has been ordered to cut $230 billion, likely from the country’s largest food assistance program for low-income Americans — and several other panels to hold their markups the first week of May, according to three other Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter.
Continue reading at Politico
The FDA fired its tobacco enforcers. Now it wants them back.
The agency asked laid-off workers to return after gutting the office that penalizes stores for selling tobacco to minors.
The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month fired dozens of staffers responsible for going after retailers who illegally sell tobacco to minors.
Now it’s begging them to come back.
Senior FDA officials asked laid-off employees in recent days to temporarily return after mass cuts decimated the agency’s ability to penalize retailers that sell cigarettes and vapes to minors, four federal health officials familiar with the matter said.
The scramble followed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s termination of roughly 10,000 employees, which included everyone in the FDA office charged with preparing and seeking fines against stores that repeatedly violate a ban on selling tobacco to customers under 21.
The FDA typically files more than 100 complaints a week seeking so-called civil money penalties against retailers, the officials said. But after the April 1 mass firings carried out across the Department of Health and Human Services, that operation ground to a halt, effectively eradicating the agency’s main weapon against illegal tobacco sales.
“You could not have done a better job of eliminating tobacco enforcement than by doing this,” said one of the officials, who were granted anonymity for fear of retaliation. “It was the perfect pinpoint strike.”
Continue reading at Politico
Health and Science News
New antibiotic could treat drug-resistant gonorrhea: Study
A new class of antibiotic has been found to be safe and effective in treating gonorrhea in late-stage trials, according to a new study published Monday in The Lancet.
The drug, called gepotidacin, works by preventing bacteria from replicating in the body and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in March to treat uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women and in girls 12 years and older.
If approved to treat gonorrhea, it will be the newest antibiotic to treat the sexually transmitted infection since the 1990s.
The drug is manufactured by the pharmaceutical company GSK and is sold under the name Blujepa.
After reaching a historic low in 2009, cases of gonorrhea in the United States steadily increased until 2021 and have slowly declined since then, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Continue reading at The Hill
‘Parkinson’s is a
man-made disease’
Europe’s flawed oversight of pesticides may be fueling a silent epidemic, warns Dutch neurologist Bas Bloem. His fight for reform pits him against industry, regulators — and time.
In the summer of 1982, seven heroin users were admitted to a California hospital paralyzed and mute. They were in their 20s, otherwise healthy — until a synthetic drug they had manufactured in makeshift labs left them frozen inside their own bodies. Doctors quickly discovered the cause: MPTP, a neurotoxic contaminant that had destroyed a small but critical part of the brain, the substantia nigra, which controls movement.
The patients had developed symptoms of late-stage Parkinson’s, almost overnight.
The cases shocked neurologists. Until then, Parkinson’s was thought to be a disease of aging, its origins slow and mysterious. But here was proof that a single chemical could reproduce the same devastating outcome. And more disturbing still: MPTP turned out to be chemically similar to paraquat, a widely used weedkiller that, for decades, had been sprayed on farms across the United States and Europe.
While medication helped some regain movement, the damage was permanent — the seven patients never fully recovered.
For a young Dutch doctor named Bas Bloem, the story would become formative. In 1989, shortly after finishing medical school, Bloem traveled to the United States to work with William Langston, the neurologist who had uncovered the MPTP-Parkinson’s link. What he saw there reshaped his understanding of the disease — and its causes.
“It was like a lightning bolt,” Bloem tells me. “A single chemical had replicated the entire disease. Parkinson’s wasn’t just bad luck. It could be caused.”
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump admin shrinks federal Medicaid funding available to states
The Trump administration is cutting off a key Medicaid financing tool used to help states pay for health care programs it says diverge from the program's core mission, including high-speed internet for rural health providers.
Why it matters: The change essentially reverts back to a policy from the first Trump administration and begins to flesh out the current administration's messaging about wanting to cut Medicaid expenses without touching benefits.
State of play: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told states last week that it doesn't plan to renew or approve new requests for federal matching funds for so-called designated state health programs.
The arrangements aren't prudent investments because they raise federal spending without necessarily advancing Medicaid goals, CMS said.
"To ensure this vital safety net continues to be available in the future, CMS is taking this action to safeguard the financial health of the Medicaid program," says a news release about the change.
Catch up quick: The policy change takes aim at CMS' practice of approving extra federal Medicaid dollars for states that are independently funding programs that wouldn't otherwise be eligible for federal Medicaid funds.
These programs include high-speed internet for rural health providers in North Carolina, student loan repayments in California and in-home services, such as housekeeping, in New York.
Continue reading at Axios
Hospitals see a small pay raise from Medicare
Hospitals are due to receive $4 billion more from Medicare under a proposed fiscal 2026 inpatient payment rule the Trump administration released on Friday.
Why it matters: The 2.4% increase comes after the Trump administration finalized a larger pay boost to Medicare Advantage plans that hospitals say are likelier to require preapprovals, deny claims and pay less than what providers bill for.
The big picture: While some of the biggest hospital chains have seen their fortunes rebound since the pandemic, smaller rural facilities are struggling to keep their doors open.
The industry also could see its financial outlook change from federal cutbacks to Medicaid.
The proposed rule calls for $1.5 billion more in uncompensated care payments to hospitals that see a disproportionate share of poor and uninsured patients.
Yes, but: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it's proposing to drop quality measures for health equity, COVID-19 vaccination coverage of health care workers and screening for social determinants of health. Under the current system, hospitals can see their payments reduced for falling short on such benchmarks.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump pharma tariff threat raises specter of shortages, price hikes
The pharmaceutical industry is bracing for chaos if President Trump follows through on his threat to impose “a major tariff” on prescription drug imports.
Tariffs would disrupt international supply chains, force companies to decide whether to pass increased costs on to patients and exacerbate existing drug shortages.
The administration wants more drug companies to onshore their manufacturing, but experts said such a process would take years, while the pain from tariffs could be much more immediate.
“We’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” Trump said Tuesday, without elaborating on details.
He said it is a “tremendous problem” that “the United States can no longer produce enough antibiotics to treat our sick.”
Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on most of his country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that would not apply to sector-specific tariffs such as pharmaceuticals.
Continue reading at The Hill
Spotlight shifts to Medicaid, a make-or-break issue for Trump
The adoption of the Republicans’ budget bill has thrown a spotlight onto the hot-button issue that could make or break President Trump’s domestic agenda: Medicaid.
The massive government health care program is at the heart of the GOP’s plan to slash federal spending in order to trim deficits and make budget space for Trump’s new tax cuts. But the topic is dividing Republicans both within and between the chambers of Congress, where conservatives favor steep cuts to Medicaid, centrists say they’ll oppose any erosion of health benefits for their constituents, and GOP leaders are left straddling the gap in search of a compromise that can appease both camps.
They have their work cut out for them.
The 70-page budget plan approved by Republicans in both chambers contains few policy details, and it mentions Medicaid only once. But it instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, to locate $880 billion in spending cuts over the next decade. That’s mathematically impossible, the Congressional Budget Office says, without cutting Medicaid, which provides health coverage to more than 70 million people.
Continue reading at The Hill
POLITICO Pulse
Why HHS cuts could put public health data at risk
DATA COLLECTION THREATENED — The mass layoffs of federal workers under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have impaired data-gathering on critical issues, including firefighter cancer rates, mother-to-baby HIV transmission cases, syphilis rates, outbreaks of drug-resistant gonorrhea and cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
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 the number of abortions performed nationwide, the lead levels in children’s blood, alcohol-related deaths, asthma rates, exposures to radon and other dangerous chemicals, the number of people with HIV who take medication to suppress the virus and the number using injectable drugs who contract infectious diseases.
Why it matters: Outside experts as well as employees at HHS, the CDC and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health who received reduction-in-force notices told POLITICO the cuts threaten to obscure the severity of pressing health threats if they can’t track their progression, 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. Additionally, the layoffs will likely 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.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment.
The bigger picture: Kennedy promised “radical transparency” at HHS and insisted that Americans would make better health choices with access to more data. Yet the cuts mean a wide range of data won’t be collected — or if still collected by states, won’t be compiled and made public. And while data from past years remain available online, future updates are in jeopardy if the cuts aren’t reversed.
The layoffs have even stymied work on issues President Donald Trump has personally championed — including halting HIV transmission and improving access to in vitro fertilization. Kennedy, for instance, eliminated the six-person team that ran the National ART Surveillance System, a congressionally mandated project that tracked and publicized the pregnancy success rates of every fertility clinic nationwide.
Continue reading the Politico Pulse newsletter
Polling- Surveys
Americans are not buying what Trump is selling them': Harry Enten breaks down new poll
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten breaks down the latest polls on how Americans feel about the economy and President Donald Trump’s net approval ratings.
Watch the segment at CNN.com
MAGA base growing within Republican Party: Poll
A growing number of Republicans are embracing the banner of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement, fueling an overall surge in the number of Americans who identify with Trump’s ubiquitous rallying cry, according to a new poll from NBC News.
More than 70 percent of Republicans surveyed for the poll in March said they consider themselves part of the MAGA movement — up from 55 percent just before the November presidential election that clinched Trump’s return to the White House this year.
The GOP consolidation around Trump and his policies has fostered an overall shift toward adopting the MAGA moniker and lifting it to new heights, the survey found.
Trump isn’t the first politician to try to coin the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” but the shorthand MAGA has been synonymous with the former reality TV star and the populist leanings of his political ideology since he launched his first successful presidential campaign nearly a decade ago.
About 1 in 5 registered voters across all parties polled in January 2024 identified as MAGA supporters, NBC News reported. That number nearly doubled, to just under 40 percent, in the survey conducted last month.
The shift also was particularly pronounced among college-educated men, from 21 percent last fall to 37 percent in March.
Continue reading at The Hill
The Courts
DOJ: Courts have ‘no authority’ to force Abrego Garcia’s return
The Department of Justice (DOJ) argued in a court filing on Sunday that federal courts have “no authority” to force the Trump administration to seek the return of a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
The DOJ lawyers were responding to a filing from lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who recommended actions the administration should take to free their client, and suggested a contempt of court hearing should be scheduled.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers suggested the administration should send planes and personnel to El Salvador to bring him back home.
Lawyers for the administration rejected any efforts by the courts to compel such actions.
“The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” Trump officials said in a Sunday filing in federal court in Maryland.
“That is the ‘exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations,’” the officials added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration contends it has no duty to return illegally deported man to US
The administration’s position suggests officials do not view the Supreme Court’s order as compelling them to seek Abrego Garcia’s return.
The Trump administration insisted Sunday that it has no legal obligation to arrange for the return of a Maryland man illegally deported from the United States, arguing that a Supreme Court ruling last week only requires officials to admit him into the country if he makes it back from a high-security prison in El Salvador.
Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge that they don’t interpret the Supreme Court’s Thursday ruling — that the administration “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release — as obligating the administration to do anything more than adjust his immigration status to admit him if El Salvador’s government chooses to release him.
With El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele set to meet President Donald Trump Monday, DOJ attorneys argued the courts have no power to require the administration to engage with the Salvadoran government to reach a diplomatic solution. They contend such a potential order would amount to a violation of the separation of powers and an intrusion into what they allege is unfettered presidential power to conduct foreign relations.
“All of those requested orders involve interactions with a foreign sovereign — and potential violations of that sovereignty,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in a seven-page submission to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis. “[A] federal court cannot compel the Executive Branch to engage in any mandated act of diplomacy or incursion upon the sovereignty of another nation.”
The administration’s position suggests officials do not view the Supreme Court’s order as compelling them to seek Abrego Garcia’s return.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump FTC faces first major test with Meta trial
The Trump administration is set to take on Meta, the social media giant that owns Facebook and Instagram, in court starting Monday in a case that could stand as a key first test for President Trump’s antitrust team.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will attempt to prove that Meta has maintained a monopoly over social networking through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, all while the agency faces internal upheaval following President Trump’s ouster of two Democratic commissioners.
“This is not just the first test of the current administration, but it’s also a test of something that they started at the end of the last Trump administration,” said Paul Swanson, who leads the antitrust and competition practice at law firm Holland & Hart.
“It’s part of a throughline from Trump 1.0 to Trump 2.0, where we can see is this administration going to continue on a course to challenge the power of Big Tech and will it be successful in doing so?” he added.
The FTC sued Meta, then Facebook, in the final months of the first Trump administration, accusing the tech firm of strategically seeking to eliminate competition through key acquisitions — Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
After the case was initially dismissed in 2021, the agency was allowed to amend its complaint, and the judge overseeing the case ruled in November that Meta had to face a trial.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration sued after taking down public spending tracker
The Trump administration was accused of breaking the law in a recent lawsuit after taking down a website meant to show the public how federal funding is disbursed to agencies.
A new lawsuit filed in federal court in D.C. accused the Trump administration of violating federal law last month when the online database overseen by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “went dark, without explanation.”
“Congress mandated prompt transparency for apportionments to prevent abuses of power and strengthen Congress’s and the public’s oversight of the spending process,” the complaint reads. “Absent this transparency, the president and OMB may abuse their authority over the apportionment of federal funds without public or congressional scrutiny or accountability.”
The suit cites legislation enacted during the Biden administration that required the budget office to make such “apportionments” of congressionally approved funding public. Under the apportionment process, agencies are given limited authority to spend funding allocated by Congress in installments.
The Hill has reached out to the OMB for comment.
Continue reading at The Hill
ACLU brings third Alien Enemies Act lawsuit after Supreme Court ruling
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday brought a new challenge to President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to carry out swift deportations.
The ACLU has convinced judges in New York and Texas to issue temporary orders blocking the administration from using the rarely invoked statute to deport migrants in their judicial districts, and the new suit seeks to do the same for those detained in Colorado.
The three new cases all follow the Supreme Court’s ruling last week that effectively rejected the ACLU’s initial challenge, brought in Washington, D.C., which sought to block the administration’s plans nationwide.
The high court ruled that migrants must file their legal challenge where they are physically detained. The justices unanimously agreed, however, that migrants must be afforded an opportunity to challenge their removal before the administration transports them to El Salvador.
“The government stated that they may consider a mere twenty-four hours to be sufficient notice,” the ACLU wrote in the new lawsuit.
“That suggestion not only defies the Supreme Court’s instructions but could mean that Petitioners may fail to get meaningful notice or opportunity to seek judicial review before being sent permanently to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, where they could spend the rest of their lives according to the Salvadoran President. Petitioners therefore seek this Court’s intervention,” it continued.
Continue reading at The Hill
AP says journalists blocked from Oval Office after judge’s order
The Associated Press on Monday said its journalists were barred from covering an Oval Office event featuring President Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in defiance of a court injunction.
“Our journalists were blocked from the Oval Office today,” a spokesperson for the wire service said. “We expect the White House to restore AP’s participation in the pool as of today, as provided in the injunction order.”
A federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to restore The Associated Press’s access to key White House spaces after it banned AP reporters over the outlet’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” in its widely-cited stylebook.
The White House recently took control of deciding which outlets are allowed in the White House Press pool, a small group of reporters covering and traveling with the president, a privilege previously held by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
The AP was not included in Monday’s press pool, the first day the judge’s order went into effect.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump sued over ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs
President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs came under their first major legal challenge Monday, brought by a libertarian public-interest firm that argues the president overstepped his authority.
Trump’s April 2 announcement imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports and targeted dozens of countries with higher “reciprocal” tariffs.
The announcement has rattled stock and bond markets, and Trump later announced the steeper tariffs would be reduced to 10 percent for 90 days to allow time for negotiations.
Monday’s lawsuit contests Trump’s ability to impose the tariffs unilaterally by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The 1977 law provides the president with the authority to impose necessary economic sanctions to combat an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” but no previous president has leveraged it to impose tariffs.
“Our system is not set up so that one person in the system can have the power to impose taxes across the world economy. That’s not how our constitutional republic works,” Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center, which is leading the lawsuit, said in an interview.
“And so that is the thing that we’re very concerned about. Because today it’s tariffs, but could it be something else in the future,” Schwab continued.
The Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian public-interest firm that regularly represents conservative causes, filed the lawsuit in partnership with Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Continue reading at The Hill
Zuckerberg testifies as FTC, Meta trade opening salvos in antitrust trial
The government wants to show the Meta CEO bought Instagram and WhatsApp to snuff out social media competition.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg became the first witness to testify Monday at the Federal Trade Commission’s landmark antitrust trial that seeks to break up his company.
The government is expected to question Zuckerberg over emails he and other executives sent about the purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. In its opening statements, the government said the Facebook parent company bought up the competing apps to create a monopoly.
In one such email, Zuckerberg said Instagram was growing so fast that the company “had” to buy it for $1 billion.
“It’s an email written by someone who recognized Instagram as a threat and was forced to sacrifice a billion dollars because Meta could not meet that threat through competition,” said the FTC’s lead lawyer, Daniel Matheson.
If the FTC convinces U.S. District Judge James Boasberg that Meta’s 2012 and 2014 acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were illegal, the agency will try to split up the $1.4 trillion company. A breakup of that size hasn’t been attempted since telephone monopoly AT&T was unwound 40 years ago.
Meta’s opening argument suggests the company will focus overwhelmingly on combating the FTC’s definition of what it calls the “personal social networking” market.
Its lawyers, led by Kellogg Hansen partner Marc Hansen, claim the government’s definition of the market — a key step in establishing if there is a monopoly — excludes rivals like TikTok, YouTube and iMessage. The FTC claims the “personal social networking” market consists of just four platforms — Meta-owned Instagram and WhatsApp, plus Snapchat and a much smaller app called MeWe.
“That’s indefensible. That’s gerrymandering,” Hansen said of the FTC’s curtailed social media market.
Continue reading at Politico
Harvard University rejects Trump administration demands to change policies
The university notified the administration that it will not comply with the list of demands, putting $9B at risk
Harvard University is rejecting Trump administration demands to adopt policy and curriculum changes to keep billions in federal grants, saying it would not accept requirements that violate its constitutional rights.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber said in a statement Monday that the demands, which include requirements to change disciplinary policies to address antisemitic acts during last year’s protests over the Israel-Hamas war, are unnecessary and infringe on its free speech rights.
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber wrote in the message to the campus community.
Harvard’s response, in the face of a threat of losing $9 billion in federal grants, represents a rare show of resistance to efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to punish major institutions and law firms he views as hostile.
Other schools, including Columbia University, have opted to accept administration demands to avoid loss of federal research grants.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump’s new favorite authoritarian is helping him sidestep court orders
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is urging Trump to emulate his iron-fisted playbook.
Move over Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. Donald Trump’s latest strongman bromance is with “President B.”
Though Trump has long admired foreign authoritarians, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s repressive regime is in some ways the beta test for Trump 2.0. Bukele calls himself the “world’s coolest dictator.” Trump said he would be a dictator on Day 1. And Trump has floated or deployed many of the same tactics Bukele used to consolidate power: removing judges, intimidating political adversaries, bypassing due process and evading term limits.
Now, Bukele is actively helping Trump sidestep court orders in the United States.
During a White House visit Monday in which the two leaders bantered like old friends, Bukele insisted on one thing: He will not release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a native Salvadoran who was living in Maryland until the U.S. illegally deported him last month. The upshot of that declaration: It gives Trump cover to maintain that he is powerless to implement a judge’s directive that the U.S. “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s immediate return from a brutal El Salvador prison. The Supreme Court upheld that directive last week.
Trump’s “nothing I can do here” stance is unusual for a president who prides himself on strong-arming other world leaders to do his bidding. And it escalates a clash with the courts in advance of a crucial Tuesday hearing before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who ordered Abrego Garcia’s return and is growing frustrated with the administration’s recalcitrance.
Hours after Bukele’s White House visit, the Trump administration quoted some of his comments in a daily report Xinis has demanded. Also in that document, the acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Mazzara, declared that “DHS does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.” The filing included no information in response to Xinis’ substantive questions.
The burgeoning partnership between Trump and Bukele is not limited to Abrego Garcia. Trump sent hundreds of other deportees to El Salvador last month, many without due process. And on Monday, he intensified his threats of lawless deportations even further: He openly mused about sending U.S. citizens to the Salvadoran prison.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: CNN journalist David Culver reported on conversations he’s had with the Salvadorian minister in charge of prisons and was told that El Salvador has been sending lists of particular individuals they want repatriated and the Trump administration has been using the lists to determine who to send to El Salvador. I will post a video clip if and when available.
Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump from ending Biden-era migrant program
A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked President Trump’s administration from ending a Biden-era program that allowed parole and the right to work for over half a million immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled Monday that migrants from the four countries can remain in the U.S., where they could obtain authorization to legally work or apply for adjustment of status, temporarily barring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from doing away with their status as part of the federal government’s effort to shut down the program 10 days from now.
“If their parole status is allowed to lapse, Plaintiffs will be faced with two unfavorable options: continue following the law and leave the country on their own, or await removal proceedings. If Plaintiffs leave the country on their own, they will face dangers in their native countries, as set forth in their affidavits,” Talwani wrote in her 41-page ruling.
“For some Plaintiffs, leaving will also cause family separation. Leaving may also mean Plaintiffs will have forfeited any opportunity to obtain a remedy based on their APA claims, as leaving may moot those claims,” the justice wrote.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Continue reading at The Hill
Anti-DEI-Whitewashing
Nothing to see here, yet.
General News
Mike Rogers launches Senate bid in Michigan
The Republican former House Intelligence Committee chair lost a U.S. Senate race to Elissa Slotkin last year.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers is launching another bid for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
In his announcement Monday, the former House Intelligence Committee chair’s campaign described him as a “conservative fighter” who would be “an ally for President Trump and champion for Michigan.”
Rogers had widely been expected to compete for the seat — his second run for U.S. Senate after losing in 2024 to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat.
The race to succeed retiring Michigan Sen. Gary Peters is expected to be one of the most contested in 2026. Republicans view the state President Donald Trump narrowly carried last year as a top pickup opportunity. In addition to Rogers, Republican Tudor Dixon is weighing a campaign. On the Democratic side, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow announced her campaign earlier this month, while Pete Buttigieg has taken himself out of contention.
Rogers left Congress in 2015 after serving 14 years in the House, including as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Over the years Rogers, a former FBI agent and CNN commentator, had at times criticized Trump, but he endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign — and Trump reciprocated, endorsing Rogers’ bid for the Senate that year.
Continue reading at Politico
What the Polls in Canada Are Really Saying
A top Canadian pollster explains how Trump completely upended the election.
Conservatives in Canada could be forgiven for celebrating earlier this year. Their nemesis Justin Trudeau announced that he was resigning as prime minister, and polls showed they would romp to victory over the Liberals whenever the election was called.
Except one longtime Canadian pollster soon began to see a different story.
Beginning in January, Frank Graves started to notice a sudden and unexpected downward trend for Conservatives. At the time, Graves was ridiculed online for his observations, especially because of his reputation as a Liberal supporter strongly opposed to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
But as Donald Trump talked more and more about tariffs and annexing Canada, Graves — and the rest of the country — watched as the Conservative Party’s 25-point lead evaporated. Now, Graves predicts a comfortable win for Mark Carney and his fellow Liberals.
“This is unprecedented,” Graves said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine. “I have never seen a transformation of our voter landscape in Canada of that nature.”
Ahead of the April 28 election, Graves explained how he detected the early stirrings of Conservatives’ downfall and why Liberals were able to tap into the Canadian political zeitgeist in the new Trump era.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Continue reading at Politico
Risk of failure looms large as GOP starts drafting the ‘big, beautiful bill’
Republicans are hoping that speed and a push from Donald Trump can keep their legislative agenda afloat.
They know it’s going to be big. They want it to be beautiful. Now congressional Republicans need to decide what’s going to be in it — and they’re confronting the very real possibility they might not be able to figure it out.
A Thursday House vote might have finalized a fiscal framework for the GOP’s domestic policy megabill, but completing that intermediate step exposed huge fissures between the House and Senate over a range of issues crucial to finishing the sprawling legislation that’s expected to span tax cuts, border security, energy and more.
Speaker Mike Johnson made big promises to a band of fiscal hawks about steep spending cuts, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune has left himself maximum flexibility to placate his own conference. Competing GOP factions, meanwhile, have drawn all sorts of red lines for the bill — many of them wholly incompatible.
And that has some Republicans worried about what’s ahead.
“I know the dialectic is supposed to produce a final result, but sometimes it doesn’t — many times up here, it doesn’t,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. “We can spend an entire year getting nothing done.”
Looming large over the GOP’s sprint toward a “big, beautiful bill,” as President Donald Trump has demanded, is what happened last time Republicans tried to sprint out of the gate and pass a big party-line policy priority after a Trump inauguration. Their 2017 effort to remake American health care ran aground after dominating the first seven months of Trump’s tenure as president.
Continue reading at Politico
Inside Congress
Rocky road ahead for Trump’s agenda
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
— Republicans have recess homework on Trump’s megabill
— Durbin’s big decision
— The fight for Space Command HQ
Durbin’s big decision
Sen. Dick Durbin could say as soon as this week whether he’ll seek another term. If the 80-year-old retires as many expect, that would open up not just his Democratic whip post, but also the party’s top slot on Senate Judiciary.
Illinois Democrats expect Durbin’s decision will come before the Cook County Democrats’ pre-slating event that starts Wednesday, Jordain writes in. His retirement would spark a ripple effect down the ballot in Illinois and add to the growing list of seats Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has to defend next year.
One seat Schumer doesn’t have to worry about for now is Sen. Michael Bennet’s in Colorado. Bennet launched his 2026 gubernatorial campaign Friday, but he doesn’t plan to resign unless he wins. That could give Bennet the power to select a successor to serve out his Senate term, which ends Jan. 2029.
Schumer and Jeffries’ tariff strategy
The Democratic leaders are amplifying unproven claims of insider trading surrounding Trump’s tariff pause. Schumer joined a handful of other Democratic senators Friday in asking SEC Chair Paul Atkins to probe whether Trump and those around him engaged in insider trading or other violations amid the financial market whiplash. He also signed a letter requesting state attorneys general investigate, including potential violations by members of Congress. Sen. Cory Booker said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there’s enough smoke” for a congressional investigation, though Democrats don’t have the power to call one.
A date to watch: As Jordain and Nicholas Wu reported Friday, lawmakers must disclose any trades that happened around the tariff-induced market swings by May 15.
POLICY RUNDOWN
GIVE ME SPACE (COMMAND) — The Alabama and Colorado congressional delegations are making their closing arguments for their states to house U.S. Space Command, as Trump appears near a decision about whether to relocate the agency, senior defense reporter Connor O’Brien reports.
Alabama lawmakers expect that sometime this month Trump will overturn a Biden-era decision to keep the unit in Colorado, sticking with his first-term decision to place it in Huntsville, Alabama. Coloradans argue they’re still in the running because the DOD agency is fully operational in Colorado Springs.
“As far as we understand, no decision has been made on Space Command,” Rep. Jeff Crank, a House Armed Services member whose district includes Colorado Springs, said during a press call with the state’s three other GOP members.
HEADACHES AT HOME — Lawmakers are preparing to have tough conversations over recess with anxious farmers amid Trump’s tariff battles and increasing economic uncertainty, per food and agriculture policy reporter Grace Yarrow.
Continue reading the Politico Inside Congress newsletter
Recent hospital violence fuels effort to create workplace protections
A new round of workplace violence in hospitals and clinics is lending urgency to efforts to create a first-ever federal standard for protecting nurses, social workers and others in the medical system.
Why it matters: Health care workers routinely rank in government statistics as among the likeliest to experience threats or assault on the job. But there's no nationwide requirement for health systems to perform hazard assessments, train employees about dangers or inform them of their rights.
Driving the news: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) this month introduced legislation that would require health care employers to write and implement a workplace violence prevention plan.
An effort to make people who assault hospital employees subject to federal charges stalled in the last Congress, with nurses unions saying it could have criminalized patients.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has reviewed workplace violence in health care for nearly a decade, and last year said it would issue a proposed rule. This legislation would mandate that OSHA create that standard, essentially writing the requirements into law.
National Nurses United backs the bipartisan legislation. "We know that workplace violence is not part of the job, and that it is preventable and that it should be anticipated," Michelle Mahon, director of nursing practice for the union, told Axios.
Yes, but: The cost of establishing a nationwide standard would be signifiant. OSHA estimated complying would total $1.22 billion a year for more than 300,000 affected establishments. The standards would reach beyond hospitals, to home health, EMTs and residential and behavioral care facilities.
Continue reading at Axios
Zelenskyy invites Trump to Ukraine: Come see ‘what Putin did’
“Come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” the Ukrainian president says after Palm Sunday attack on Sumy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Donald Trump to visit his war-ravaged country and witness the destruction wrought by Russia, after Sunday’s ballistic missile attack that killed at least 34 people in Sumy.
Speaking to American news program “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, Zelenskyy was asked whether he wanted to invite the American president to Ukraine and responded: “With pleasure.”
“We want you to come,” he said, addressing Trump directly, “to come and to see.”
“You think you understand what’s going on here. OK, we respect your position … But, please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said.
Zelenskyy’s plea aired hours after a Russian strike in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least 34 people and wounded 117 more as they gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday. The attack, which drew condemnation from Kyiv’s allies, is one of the deadliest on Ukraine this year.
“Come, look, and then let’s — let’s move with a plan how to finish the war,” Zelenskyy said. “You will understand with whom you have a deal. You will understand what Putin did.”
The visit would not be staged with “actors,” Zelenskyy said, adding Trump could “go exactly where you want, in any city” shelled by Moscow.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
McCarthy says Trump ‘having to be’ House Speaker and president
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Sunday that President Trump is “having to be” both Speaker and president.
“Last week, the so-called fiscal hawks said they’d never vote for what they just voted for,” Fox News’s Trey Gowdy said on his show, referencing the recent adoption of the Senate’s framework that will be used to enact important portions of Trump’s legislative agenda by House Republicans.
“How do you manage a group that rarely takes yes for an answer?” he added.
McCarthy responded that the “difference is President Donald Trump.”
“President Trump brought them into the Oval Office, talked to them, and lo and behold, they were able to pass the instructions for this reconciliation bill. Now the hard part begins, but you can’t give President Trump enough credit. He’s not only the president, he’s now having to be the Speaker and run the House at the same time,” McCarthy said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Pennsylvania arson suspect used Molotov cocktails, planned to beat Shapiro: Officials
A suspect in the recent arson attack at the Pennsylvania governor’s residence used Molotov cocktails and planned to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), according to local officials.
In a criminal complaint, Pennsylvania State Police said Cody Balmer said that he “would have beaten” the Pennsylvania governor “with his hammer” if he encountered him within the residence. Police also said Balmer “admitted to harboring hatred towards” Shapiro.
Dauphin County District Attorney Francis Chardo also said in a Monday update on the fire that Balmer used multiple Molotov cocktails on Shapiro’s residence.
“These actions were captured on video surveillance. Gov. Joshua Shapiro and his family were within the residence at the time of the attack and had to be evacuated. The fire caused substantial damage to the Governor’s Residence,” Chardo said Monday.
Continue reading at The Hill
State found no evidence of antisemitism, terrorism against Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk: Report
A State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post showed the federal government’s investigation of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk could not find any links to antisemitism or terrorism.
The memo, issued in March and described to the Post, said there was not enough evidence for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to order Ozturk’s removal based on an immigration law that says the secretary can order the deportation of a noncitizen that threatens the foreign policy of the United States. The rarely used law has become a key weapon in the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Ozturk was detained March 25; video of the incident went viral as multiple officers in plain clothes walked up to her on the street and took her away in an unmarked van.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had previously said Ozturk was involved in activities that were “in support of Hamas,” without offering further evidence.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump blames Zelensky for Ukraine war after ’60 Minutes’ interview
President Trump on Monday sought to distance himself from the war between Russia and Ukraine as his promise to end the conflict quickly has proven difficult to accomplish.
“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, and everyone else, respected your President!”
Trump also blamed President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “allowing this travesty to begin.”
“There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST,” Trump added.
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
Trump calls Russian attack on Ukrainian city of Sumy ‘terrible’: ‘They made a mistake’
President Trump late Sunday called a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian city that left dozens dead a “horrible thing” and said he had been told Russia “made a mistake.”
“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Asked what he meant when he said it was a “mistake,” Trump demurred and blamed former President Biden for allowing the war between Russia and Ukraine to start.
“They made a mistake. I believe it was — look, you’re gonna ask them,” Trump said. “This is Biden’s war. This is not my war. This is a war that was under Biden. … I’m just trying to get it stopped so that we can save a lot of lives.”
Trump lamented that historic architecture in Ukraine had been destroyed, in addition to the loss of life.
“That war is a shame. Millions of people are dead that should be alive. Cities are being destroyed all over Ukraine,” Trump said. “The whole culture is gone. It’s very certainly very severely hurt.”
Two missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday amid Palm Sunday celebrations, killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 100, according to multiple reports. The civilian casualties came as the U.S. has pushed for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘Everybody is to blame’: Trump slams Biden, Zelenskyy and Putin for war in Ukraine
Trump’s latest criticism of the ongoing war follows a Russian missile attack on Ukraine that led to dozens of casualties.
President Donald Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, blaming both leaders for the ongoing war in Ukraine.
While taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Trump decried Zelenskyy and former President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict, saying the war would have never started under his leadership. But he also didn’t shy away from bashing Putin, who has largely been spared from Trump’s criticism.
“That’s a war that should have never been allowed to start and Biden could have stopped it and Zelenskyy could have stopped it and Putin should have never started it,” Trump said. “Everybody is to blame.”Trump added: “If Biden were competent and if Zelenskyy were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy — he just kept asking for more and more.”
The criticism of Zelenskyy comes a little over a month after the two leaders’ televised sparring in the Oval Office, where Trump accused Zelenskyy of taking advantage of the U.S.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: see the two news items above for news reporting and videos on this topic
What to know about Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president who will visit Trump
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele is meeting with President Trump Monday as the U.S. has ramped up its deportations to the Central American nation.
The big picture: Bukele — the self-described "world's coolest dictator" —agreed to warehouse migrants and criminals deported from the U.S. in its notorious prison system, solidifying the country as a key ally for the Trump administration.
Trump lauded Bukele in a Saturday Truth Social post for accepting U.S. deportees, writing, "[t]hese 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."
The partnership has come with other perks. Before Bukele's visit, the U.S. State Department changed its travel advisory rating for El Salvador to Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions — effectively rating it as safer for travel than countries like France and the United Kingdom, which currently have a Level 2 rating.
Here's what to know about Bukele ahead of his White House visit:
Nayib Bukele's political career and elections
Bukele, 43, is a former mayor of San Salvador. He was first elected president in 2019 as a third-party candidate of the center-right GANA party.
In 2017, he was expelled from the left-wing FMLN party following an internal dispute and frequent criticism of party leadership.
He ran on an anti-corruption platform and leaned heavily on his popularity on social media to snag his historic victory in 2019.
He steadily won reelection in 2024 with 84.7% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Despite the election results not being finalized, Bukele declared victory hours after polls closed.
State of play: While in office, Bukele has taken a strongman approach to governing.
Continue reading at Axios
Note from Rima: President Bukele’s entire statement at the start of Oval Office Q&A is followed by clips. I highly recommend listening to at least the first 5 minutes of the full video to see just how adept Bukele is at working Trump.
El Salvador won’t return wrongly deported Maryland man
Attorney General Pam Bondi, sitting near Trump, said it is up to El Salvador to decide if they want to return him.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office Monday he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man illegally deported to El Salvador — to the United States, as Trump administration officials vehemently argued they were in no position to force the decision.
“How can I return him to the United States? Am I going to smuggle him? Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said while sitting beside President Donald Trump. “The question is preposterous.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, sitting near Trump, said it is up to El Salvador to decide if they want to return him. “That’s not up to us,” she said. “If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump says he’s open to sending violent criminals who are US citizens to El Salvador prison
“If they’re criminals, and if they hit people with baseball bats over the head that happen to be 90 years old, if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yeah. Yeah that includes them,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Why, do you think there’s a special category of person? They’re as bad as anyone that comes in. We have bad ones, too. And, I’m all for it.”
Trump did not specify which cases he was referring to. There is a widely reported case of an 82-year-old Brooklyn woman who was raped in her home. The suspect was an 18-year-old at the time and was found guilty a year later.
Trump’s comments came during a meeting with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. Bukele has worked with the Trump administration to take in hundreds of deportees, including many not from El Salvador, and hold them in a massive prison that has drawn criticism from human rights watchdogs.
Trump framed the potential deportation of violent American citizens as a way to save money.
Continue reading at The Hill
Stephen Miller contradicts DOJ court docs on man mistakenly deported
Miller’s comment came after the Justice Department said Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident, was deported due to an “administrative error” as he was protected from deportation in a 2019 order from a judge.
The career Justice Department attorney who made the disclosure was suspended later when Attorney General Pam Bondi said he failed to “vigorously” defend the Trump administration.
But Miller said Monday that attorney Erez Reuveni was suspended for an “incorrect” line.
“Nobody was mistakenly deported anywhere. That’s a big fact that all of you, most of you, have gotten wrong. No one was mistakenly sent anywhere. The only mistake that was made is a lawyer put an incorrect line in a legal filing that’s since been relieved. … He is El Salvadorian. He is an illegal alien. He was deported to El Salvador,” Miller told reporters at the White House on Monday.
While it was a filing from Reuveni that said Abrego Garcia was deported in error, other Trump administration officials have made sworn declarations indicating he was mistakenly removed from the country.
“The operation that led to Abrego-Garcia’s removal to El Salvador was designed to only include individuals with no impediments to removal. … ICE was aware of this grant of withholding of removal at the time Abrego-Garcia’s removal from the United States. Reference was made to this status on internal forms,” Robert Cerna, the acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), wrote in a declaration filed last month.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump weighs slashing State Department budget by nearly half
A document obtained by POLITICO shows plans to zero out or substantially reduce spending on many programs, including ones that promote democracy.
The Trump administration is weighing asking Congress to cut the budgets of the State Department and USAID by nearly half as it continues its effort to dramatically curtail government spending, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.
The proposal for fiscal 2026 would allocate $28.4 billion to State and USAID, down from $54.4 billion in the enacted fiscal 2025 budget. That includes cuts demanded by the White House Office of Management and Budget. It also accounts for the dismantling of USAID; its remaining programs are in the process of being subsumed by the State Department.
The proposal would eliminate or substantially cut numerous programs, including ones that promote democracy, support educational and cultural exchanges, fight drug trafficking and assist U.N. peacekeeping efforts.
Spending on global health programs could be cut by some 50 percent, while funding to deal with migration and refugees would be cut in half and only used for emergency purposes, the document shows.
The administration is considering shuttering up to three dozen U.S. diplomatic outposts around the world, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter, as part of these sweeping efforts to slash the diplomatic budget. This includes U.S. embassies in Southern Africa and the Sahel, consulates in Europe and several embassies in Oceania, the officials said.
The budget document indicates that the Trump administration will also ask Congress to accept around $20 billion in rescissions — meaning money that the department has decided not to spend and will return to the Treasury. The document is different from a State Department reorganization plan due soon to OMB.
Continue reading at Politico
Jewish people fear scapegoating as Trump invokes antisemitism to justify crackdowns
President Trump's invocation of antisemitism to justify everything from slashing college funds to deporting student protestors risks making Jewish people scapegoats for his policies, community leaders warn.
The big picture: With antisemitism rising in the U.S., Trump's repressive crackdown could stoke further animus against Jews, Lauren Strauss, a professor of modern Jewish history at American University, told Axios.
"Antisemitism is on the lips of people who probably never used that word in their lives," Strauss, said. "It has entered the American political discourse in a way that really it never has before."
The administration is not providing tangible solutions to actual antisemitism, she added.
The Trump administration's actions "seen by many as violations of people's civil liberties are not the way to stem this tide, she added, "and to take that even further, could end up hurting the Jews and everyone else more than they help."
The White House declined to comment on the record.
Context: On Wednesday, the administration said it would screen immigrants' social media for antisemitic content as grounds for denying immigration requests. Trump's administration has cast pro-Palestinian activism as antisemitic.
Continue reading at Axios
NASA's climate funding in jeopardy with potential cuts
A draft White House budget plan floating around would steeply cut NASA's Earth Sciences division that's the centerpiece of the agency's climate work.
Why it matters: "Such NASA cuts would require ending the operations of a huge host of earth science satellites," Paul Voosen writes in Science.
"They could also result in the closure of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which has thousands of employees and is one of the agency's premier centers for earth science research," he adds.
Driving the news: The Washington Post reported that the budget plan, sent to NASA by the Office of Management and Budget, would give NASA's Science Mission Directorate $3.9 billion, down from its current budget of about $7.3 billion.
"This budget would halt the development of nearly every future science project at NASA," the Planetary Society said in a statement.
The group said the proposed cuts amount to "wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer funds already spent on these projects, abandoning international and commercial partners, and surrendering U.S. leadership in space science to other nations."
The administration also is considering deep cuts to NOAA while seeking to end much of its climate change work, according to an internal document seen by Axios.
Yes, but: Jared Isaacman, President Trump's pick to lead NASA, told senators last week it would be feasible to have "multiple flagship scientific missions at once."
Continue reading at Axios
White House to send Congress a formal request to nix $9.3B for PBS, State Department
Republican lawmakers have been clamoring for a rescissions request, to give Congress a say in the Trump administration’s spending cuts.
The White House will soon ask Congress to cancel $9.3 billion already approved for foreign aid initiatives, public broadcasting and other programs, according to a White House official granted anonymity to speak freely.
Congress is expected to receive that so-called rescissions request when lawmakers return from their two-week recess later this month. To nix the funding, the House and Senate will each have to vote at a simple-majority threshold to approve the formal ask.
The White House package is expected to target funding for the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, U.S. Institute of Peace and other programs.
A Trump administration document obtained Monday also shows the White House is considering a larger request to revoke funding for State and USAID, as well as asking Congress to cut those budgets by almost half for the upcoming fiscal year.
Continue reading at Politico
Fed governor Waller sees stagflationary impact of tariffs
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller painted a stagflationary picture of President Trump’s tariff agenda Monday, arguing that the hit to economic growth could be more significant than the upward pressure on prices.
He said he expects the price effect of the tariffs to be “temporary” and that interest rate policy could be more responsive to output and employment effects.
“While I expect the inflationary effects of higher tariffs to be temporary, their effects on output and employment could be longer-lasting and an important factor in determining the appropriate stance of monetary policy,” he said in a speech to financial analysts in St. Louis Monday.
Waller said that a recession could be one of the outcomes of Trump’s new tariff policies. Such an outcome would likely trigger more interest rate cuts at a quicker pace.
“If the slowdown is significant and even threatens a recession, then I would expect to favor cutting the [Fed’s] policy rate sooner, and to a greater extent than I had previously thought,” Waller said.
Continue reading at The Hill
7 US service members had ‘COVID-19-like symptoms’ after 2019 Wuhan games: Pentagon report
Seven U.S. service members exhibited “COVID-19-like symptoms” during or after their return from the 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan, China, according to a Pentagon report recently made public.
The report indicates the service members had symptoms between Oct. 18, 2019, and Jan. 21, 2020. The symptoms all resolved within six days, according to the report, which is dated December 2022.
The games opened on Oct. 18, 2019, and closed on Oct. 27, 2019.
The service members were not tested for COVID-19, according to the report, because “testing was not available at this early stage of the pandemic.”
The report makes clear that the symptoms “could have been caused by other respiratory infections.”
The first known case of COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The first confirmed case outside of China was reported in January 2020.
The CIA said in January it favors the Wuhan lab-leak theory to explain the origin of the virus that led to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the agency said it had little confidence in this conclusion, suggesting the evidence was insufficient or inconclusive.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: As stated in the article, please consider that this news item contradicts prior reports.
A Venezuelan man was tackled in a New Hampshire courthouse and sent by ICE to Texas
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Venezuelan man facing misdemeanor charges in New Hampshire was apprehended in a courthouse by federal agents who also knocked over a bystander as they tackled him.
Recently released security camera footage from Nashua Circuit Court shows two agents throwing Arnuel Marquez Colmenarez to the floor and handcuffing him on Feb. 20. An older man using a cane to walk also ended up flat on his back.
Marquez Colmenarez, 33, had been charged Feb. 9 with drunken driving, driving without a license and failing to provide information after an accident. He was heading to his arraignment on those charges when he was apprehended, Nashua Police say.
Jared Neff, the court liaison officer for the Hudson Police Department, said he was in the prosecutor’s office when he heard a loud commotion near the elevators.
“There were voices yelling ‘Stop!’ and then a loud ‘bang’ which sounded like people had fallen on the ground and were actively fighting and struggling,” he wrote in an incident report.
Continue reading and view photos at the AP
Trump official who led efforts to dismantle USAID exits State Department
Peter Marocco, an official who oversaw the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has exited the State Department, according to the Trump administration.
“Pete was brought to State with a big mission — to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement obtained by The Hill.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on Marocco’s exit.
Marocco played an important part in the Trump administration’s efforts to take apart USAID and was an acting deputy director for the agency at one point.
According to a statement obtained by The New York Times, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Marocco’s “actions deprived millions of people around the world of lifesaving aid and jeopardized U.S. credibility with our partners.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi arrested by DHS agents during naturalization interview
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by federal agents Monday while he was in a naturalization interview at an immigration office in Vermont.
Mahdawi, a Palestinian student and green-card holder, was arrested by agents with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Colchester, Vt., according to a court filing.
Mahdawi was a leader in the pro-Palestinian protests last spring, making him the latest such activist targeted by the Trump administration. The first and most prominent foreign-born student demonstrator now in immigration custody, Mahmoud Khalil, also attended Columbia.
“The Trump administration detained Mohsen Mahdawi in direct retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinians and because of his identity as a Palestinian. His detention is an attempt to silence those who speak out against the atrocities in Gaza. It is also unconstitutional,” attorney Luna Droubi said.
The court filing said Mahdawi was targeted by a pro-Israel organization called Betar US, which said on social media that “visa holder Mohsen Mahdawi is on our deport list.”
Continue reading at The Hill
US arrests co-founder of Palestinian student group at Columbia University
Mohsen Mahdawi was taking final steps toward US citizenship.
Authorities have detained a co-founder of Columbia University’s Palestinian Student Union as he was completing the final steps toward gaining U.S. citizenship in what appears to be part of a widening crackdown on college activists by the Trump administration.
Mohsen Mahdawi, who had permanent U.S. residency, was taken into custody Monday in Vermont when he went to a federal office building for a naturalization appointment, according to a legal filing his attorney submitted to block his transfer to a detention facility out of state.
Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mahmoud Khalil, another activist and green card holder who was arrested in March and is fighting deportation. Both played roles in protests of the Israel-Hamas war that roiled the campus last year.
“As a result of his speech he’s being detained, I mean it’s outrageous,” said Luna Droubi, an attorney for Mahdawi, who was raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank but has lived in the U.S. for a decade.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump administration officials, in discussing Khalil, have asserted the government’s prerogative to expel noncitizens whose presence it considers damaging to U.S. foreign policy interests.
Vermont’s representatives in Congress denounced Mahdawi’s arrest and called for his release.
“This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” Vermont’s Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint, wrote in a statement. “Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”
Continue reading at Politico
Schumer: El Salvador refusal to return mistakenly deported man ‘pure nonsense’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) panned Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Monday after he said that he has no plans to return a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to his country earlier this year, calling the plan “pure nonsense.”
When asked by reporters if he will return Kilmar Abrego Garcia after the Supreme Court ruled last week that the U.S. must “facilitate” such a move, Bukele shot back: “Of course I’m not going to do it.”
Schumer heaped criticism on those remarks, pointing to the Court’s order.
“President Bukele’s comment today is pure nonsense. The law is clear, due process was grossly violated, and the Supreme Court has clearly spoken that the Trump administration must facilitate and effectuate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Schumer said in a statement.
“He should be returned to the U.S. immediately,” he continued. “Due process and the rule of law are cornerstones of American society for citizens and noncitizens alike and not to follow that is dangerous and outrageous. A threat to one is a threat to all.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump strike deal with Salem Media
Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump have reached a deal with Salem Media that will make the pair of Trump family members a major part of the company’s strategic growth and content offerings moving forward, the network announced on Monday.
As part of the deal, Salem acquired a 30 percent stake in MxM News, a mobile news aggregation app co-owned by Trump Jr., and entered into a long-term services agreement under which Trump Jr. and Salem will “work together to develop a series of high-impact promotional and growth initiatives.”
Trump Jr. will become a key stakeholder of Salem and a strategic force behind its future, the media company said.
Lara Trump, meanwhile, will primarily collaborate on business growth in the digital podcast space, advertiser partnerships and content innovation. She will also become a significant stakeholder in Salem Media and will support select initiatives that align with the company’s expansion goals, the company said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Agriculture secretary fires back at NY Democrat over food programs
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) are at odds over threats to funding for crucial food assistance programs as the Trump administration slashes federal spending.
Rollins, who became head of the Department of Agriculture in February, called the concerns Ryan previously raised about canceled shipments for food banks in his district “fake news,” as she acknowledged the USDA “pulled back” funds she described as “Covid-era” and unspent, when asked about it during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
Rollins stressed during the Fox News appearance the USDA funding had not been spent before it was “pulled back.”
“They were asking for more time because they couldn’t figure out how to spend the money so quickly. So that is what we pulled back,” she said, adding the USDA still provides assistance to food banks.
She didn’t elaborate on the specific concerns raised about the additional funding promised, but she accused Ryan of being politically motivated.
“The Democrats are struggling right now for a unifying message. They think this could be it even though it’s completely false,” Rollins said. “They’ve made up this narrative. It is not true in reality, and never — not once will a child go hungry in this country under any sort of USDA program or with President Trump in control and in power.”
Ryan, a first-term representative from upstate New York, quickly shot back at Rollins on social media.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump says pharma tariffs will entice back drug production. They won’t.
Pharmaceuticals were the EU’s largest export to the U.S. last year, worth a reported $127B.
BRUSSELS — After hitting just about every other industry he can think of (albeit with a brief pause), Donald Trump’s long-promised tariffs on drugs are around the corner.
“We’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” he said at a dinner of the National Republican Congressional Committee last week.
“And when they hear that, they will leave China. They will leave other places because they have to sell — most of their product is sold here and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over the place.”
Are they, though?
It’s true that the branded pharmaceuticals — the household names that left the U.S. for Ireland and its favorable tax regime — need a continued presence in the U.S. because it’s such a big market for pharma, and due to its “relatively short time-to-market for innovative medication,” according to analysts at ING.
“Given their presence all over the globe and their higher margins, some shuffling in their supply chains as a result of tariffs is likely,” they wrote in a briefing.
But will it lead to the full-scale exodus that Trump has promised?
In 2024, pharmaceuticals were the EU’s largest export to the U.S., worth a reported $127 billion.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump administration announces freeze in $2.2 billion for Harvard after university rejects request for policy changes
CNN) — [Breaking news update, published at 8:04 p.m. ET]
The Trump administration announced Monday that it would freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value at Harvard University after the school said it would not follow policy demands from the administration.
[Original story, published at 4:37 p.m. ET]
Continue reading at CNN.com
IRS information chief leaving agency: Reports
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) chief information officer said he is leaving the agency later this month, announcing his departure shortly before the April 15 tax-filing deadline, multiple outlets reported Monday evening.
Rajiv Uppal, who has served in the role since early 2024, announced in an email to staff that he will depart the tax-collecting agency on April 28, according to reports.
“It’s been an honor to serve as your Chief Information Officer for two filing seasons, and I’m tremendously proud of the work we’ve done together to modernize how we deliver, support mission outcomes and navigate change,” Uppal reportedly said in the email.
The Hill has reached out to IRS’s spokesman for comment.
Uppal, who has over 25 years of Information technology experience in both the private and public sectors, is another high-level departure from the agency that has been targeted by President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The duo has looked to slash thousands of IRS workers.
Last week, the IRS’s acting commissioner Melanie Krause resigned after a deal was struck to share migrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Continue reading at The Hill
Economic Analysis
Economist Jared Bernstein
Economist Dean Baker
Economist Mike Konczal
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.
Townhall Videos and
Protests around the nation
now have their own dedicated post
Video Features
‘A downward spiral has begun’: Varying reactions to Trump Administration’s trade war
As some CEOs are nervous about a recession or an economic downturn in the next six months, small businesses that manufacture in the US are optimistic, while those that import goods made overseas are more worried about rising costs. Markets remain wary.
How they see US
France 24 in English - Live
Sky News Live
Before you go…
I publish this daily news post, updated all throughout the day (and night), seven days a week. I publish it free to all because it is more important to me to keep us all informed, but it does take me from 04:00 through the evening to curate the news. I also publish 2-4 opinion pieces per week, also free. I am committed to doing this work for the duration of this administration.
Please support me by subscribing for $5 a month.
Thank you.
My Opinion Pieces:
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.