Things Musk (and Trump) Did... 04-20-25 | Blog#42
To our more Catholic than the Pope VP, Francis is way too kind to migrants and the poor...
Yesterday's post
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Yesterday’s News Worth Repeating
"We need to do something": David Hogg on gun violence and future of the Democratic Party
'He hasn't won an election since I was born': Gen Z Dem fundraiser hits back at Carville
Vatican notes ‘exchange of opinions’ over migrants, prisoners in meeting with Vance
VATICAN CITY (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Saturday with the Vatican’s No. 2 official amid tensions over the U.S. crackdown on migrants, with the Holy See reaffirming good relations but noting “an exchange of opinions” over current international conflicts, migrants and prisoners.
The Vatican issued a statement after Vance, a Catholic convert, met with the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher. There was no indication he met with Pope Francis, who has been resuming some official duties during his recovery from pneumonia.
The Holy See has responded cautiously to the Trump administration, in keeping with its tradition of diplomatic neutrality.
It has expressed alarm over the administration’s crackdown on migrants and cuts in international aid while insisting on peaceful resolutions to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Continue reading at the AP
Today's news
Democratic News Corner
Democrats face growing calls for generational change
On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair David Hogg’s group Leaders We Deserve PAC launched a $20 million effort aimed at primarying House Democratic incumbents in safe seats in hopes of electing younger candidates. A number of young progressive candidates have already launched primary bids against longtime incumbent House Democrats.
The efforts come as young, progressive figures in the party like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are playing a central role in galvanizing the party’s grassroots in large-scale rallies across the country.
“The Democratic Party says over and over again ‘we have to care about democracy, we have to care about democracy,’ and we do,” Hogg said in an interview with The Hill. “But the best way to do that is not just to say we need to care about democracy, it is to use democracy to actively help people improve their lives and show them how democracy is the best vehicle to do that.”
Grassroots anger has bubbled up against the Democratic establishment’s response to Trump during his first three months in office, reaching a fever pitch earlier this month when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a handful of other Democrats voted with Republicans to pass a House GOP-drafted budget resolution. The development further sparked speculation of a potential Senate primary battle between Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez.
“The leadership part is what you do around the procedural part to have a conversation with the public about who we are and who we want to be,” said Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Senate candidate in Michigan. “There’s a lot more you can do when you embrace the leadership part of the job and you’re seeing leaders do that, folks like Sen. Sanders and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.”
Continue reading at The Hill and watch the interviews with David Hogg above
Former Clinton Adviser: Democrats Should Follow Bernie Sanders and AOC
Longtime Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik says the party should promote populist economics.
As Democrats grapple with how to find their way back to power, one party strategist has some surprising advice. Or at least, it may be surprising coming from him.
Doug Sosnik is a longtime Democratic strategist best known for being a top adviser to Bill Clinton. He’s a self-described member of the party’s centrist wing. But he says it’s now time for Democrats to take a page from the progressive left’s playbook.
“I think that what Bernie Sanders and AOC have been saying — which is really a populist economic agenda — I think that is an important element for the Democratic Party going forward,” he said in an interview with the Playbook Deep Dive podcast.
Sosnik is also blunt about Democrats’ predicament as President Donald Trump upends Washington, but argues the party has an opportunity to refine its message ahead of 2026, and more importantly, 2028.
“We’re out of power. We can’t get anything done,” he said. “But at least we need to be able to articulate a coherent narrative about the future that can appeal to the middle class.”
Sosnik also talked about which Democrats intrigued him as potential 2028 presidential contenders — mostly governors, but one senator did come up — as well as who was not likely to end up as the nominee.
“There are indoor politicians and outdoor politicians,” Sosnik said. “Indoor politicians have a roof over them. They’re senators, they give speeches. Outdoor politicians are people that are out there in the field, they’re in the crowds.” Keep an eye on the ones outside.
Continue reading at Politico watch the interview here:
Thousands Attend Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Montana Rally
Democrats dive into GOP districts, accusing Republicans of avoiding constituents
House Democrats are diving back into GOP districts to conduct town halls during the long spring recess, escalating an unusual tactic they’re hoping will help them win over battleground voters.
The gambit — aimed at districts held by Republicans facing tough reelection contests — was initiated after House GOP leaders advised Republican lawmakers not to meet face-to-face with voters in large, public forums amid the outcry over President Trump’s efforts to remake Washington.
In March, a handful of Democrats ventured into GOP districts to stage town halls put on by grassroots activists and local party affiliates. They’ve expanded the effort this month, using the two-week holiday break to visit Republican-held districts in states spanning from coast to coast.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have gained the most attention as they traverse the country on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which launched in March. In recent days the pair has barnstormed through Republican strongholds in the West, including stops in Montana, Utah and Idaho, attracting large crowds in the process.
But they’re hardly alone. On a smaller scale, individual House Democrats — some coordinating with the Democrats’ national campaign arms, others not — are also hopping into Republican territory to take their anti-Trump arguments directly to voters. A large part of the message is calling out GOP lawmakers for declining to conduct similar public events.
“Republicans shouldn’t be hiding from their constituents,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said Friday in an email.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Sanders/AOC’s rallies have drawn tens of thousands consistently. See today’s Montana rally live above.
‘JB wants to fight’: Illinois governor embraces role as one of Trump’s fiercest foes
The two-term governor hasn’t announced whether he’ll run for reelection next year, but is increasingly making high-profile appearances across the country.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — JB Pritzker is at a political crossroads.
The popular, two-term Illinois governor would be a prohibitive favorite if he runs again in 2026.
But the fiery progressive Democrat is also increasingly burnishing his national political credentials, making high profile appearances across the country, using his vast personal wealth to bankroll Democratic causes and pillorying the divisive policies of President Donald Trump.
Pritzker has strong views about what Democrats need to do to claw their way back from the wilderness after the drubbing they took in November.
“Democrats shouldn’t fall into the trap that they fell into in 2024 of responding to everything that the Republicans say, given the way they twist things,” Pritzker said in a wide-ranging interview in his Capitol office where he signs bills. “Republicans keep asking the question, ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?’ There is no good answer to that.”
But at the same time, Pritzker stresses, Democrats need to vigorously defend core principles, saying it was a “mistake” that Kamala Harris’ campaign never came up with an effective answer to Trump’s attacks for her support of transgender rights.
Asked how he would have responded, Pritzker said: “First of all, stop picking on the smallest minority of people whose civil rights are just as important as yours. … Trans children are most likely of any group to commit suicide. Why do Republicans have no sympathy for that at all?”
Continue reading at Politico
Hakeem Jeffries makes it clear he’ll stand by incumbent House Dems
The DNC’s David Hogg has said he wants to fund some challengers in safe Democratic districts.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday pushed back on David Hogg’s effort to fund primary challengers against select Democrats in deep blue seats, arguing in favor of a more efficient allocation of party resources.
“Here’s the thing,” Jeffries told Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m gonna really focus on trying to defeat Republican incumbents so we can take back control of the House of Representatives and begin the process of ending this national nightmare that’s being visited upon us by far-right extremism.”
Leaders We Deserve, an organization co-founded by Hogg, now the Democratic National Committee vice chair, last week said it would shell out $20 million to younger, more progressive challengers of Democratic incumbents in safe blue seats.
The resultant schism has pitted Hogg and allies looking to inject fresh faces and enthusiasm into the party against key Democrats and insiders who are preaching unity and believe that money could be spent on winning back the House majority.
But on Sunday, Hogg told Karl during an ABC panel discussion that his initiative had two goals, resolving friction within the party and energizing American voters by “giving people something to vote for.”
“We cannot just be the party that is against Donald Trump,” Hogg said. “We have to be a party that doesn’t have a 27 percent approval rating from our own base. That is not a survivable future. And the way that we change that is making sure that we have some different characters.”
Continue reading at Politico
Note From Rima: The clip below begins with the roundtable mentioned in the article
National Security
Former Top Pentagon Spokesperson Details ‘Month from Hell’ Inside the Agency
A month of total chaos at the Department of Defense is becoming a major distraction for the Trump administration, writes John Ullyot.
John Ullyot is former chief Pentagon spokesman and led communications at the National Security Council and the Department of Veterans Affairs in President Donald Trump’s first term. He resigned from the Pentagon last week. He was a senior communications adviser on Trump’s 2016 campaign.
It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership.
President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.
The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks. On Friday, Hegseth fired three of his most loyal senior staffers — senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense. In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month.
Yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.
On Friday, POLITICO reported that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, was leaving his role. Kasper had requested the investigation into the Pentagon leaks, which reportedly included military operational plans for the Panama Canal and a pause in the collection of intelligence for Ukraine.
Hegseth is now presiding over a strange and baffling purge that will leave him without his two closest advisers of over a decade — Caldwell and Selnick — and without chiefs of staff for him and his deputy. More firings may be coming, according to rumors in the building.
In short, the building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership.
Continue reading at Politico
Former Pentagon official warns department’s dysfunction could topple Hegseth
“The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon,” John Ullyot, the former top Defense Department spokesperson, wrote in a POLITICO Magazine opinion piece.
The Pentagon is in “total chaos” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is unlikely to remain in his role, according to its former top spokesperson, who painted a scene of dysfunction, backstabbing and continuous missteps at the highest levels of the department.
“The building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership,” John Ullyot wrote Sunday in a POLITICO Magazine opinion piece. “The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership.”
Ullyot, who resigned from the Pentagon last week, described a department in collapse. He accused Hegseth’s team of “falsehoods” about why three top officials were fired last week, saying they hadn’t leaked sensitive information to the media. He chastised Pentagon officials for how they handled revelations that Hegseth shared sensitive military information in a Signal chat, and he pointed to other leaks that caused embarrassment to the administration.
The remarkable accusations by a former official — who left only two days ago and insists he still supports the Trump administration’s national security policies — underscores the infighting and upheaval that has turned increasingly public in recent weeks.
But he also found himself in the center of several controversies that added to that chaos.
Ullyot was sidelined after he defended the removal in March of a story discussing the service of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, part of a larger purge of diversity-related military webpages.
“The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration,” he wrote.
The Defense Department and White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Continue reading at Politico
Pentagon denies reports that Hegseth shared attack details in 2nd Signal chat
The Pentagon on Sunday night denied multiple reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent details of planned U.S. attacks against Yemen's Houthi rebels in a Signal chat group that included his wife, brother and lawyer.
Why it matters: The New York Times first reported that Hegseth set up the group in January before his confirmation as defense secretary. The reports come after it emerged last month that The Atlantic's editor-in-chief had been added to a group text in the encrypted messaging app.
It's been a tumultuous few days at the Defense Department, with several officials fired — and the Pentagon's chief spokesperson Sean Parnell pointed to "disgruntled former employees" as he denied the reports.
What they're saying: Parnell claimed the reports "relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage" Hegseth's and President Trump's agenda, without elaborating further on how he knew of the sources used by the outlets reporting on the matter.
"There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story," he added.
"What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump's agenda."
Continue reading at Axios
Turmoil engulfs Pentagon as fresh Signal allegations hit Hegseth
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is battling a series of major setbacks that portray the Pentagon as an agency in deep turmoil — including a fresh bombshell report on his use of Signal and the brutal defection of a one-time close ally.
Why it matters: The new revelations raise questions about Hegseth's ability to run the nation's largest government agency and who's been privy to typically secret Defense Department communications.
It's been a tumultuous few days at the Defense Department, with several officials fired.
The Pentagon's chief spokesperson Sean Parnell pointed to "disgruntled former employees" as he denied reports Sunday that Hegseth sent details of planned U.S. attacks against Yemen's Houthi rebels in a Signal chat group that included his wife, brother and lawyer.
Zoom in: Since Thursday, Hegseth's top leadership team has been decimated, overtaken by backstabbing that's more reminiscent of President Trump's first term than the current administration.
Former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot, who left office days ago, wrote in a Politico opinion piece Sunday "the last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it's becoming a real problem for the administration."
It's hard to see Hegseth "remaining in his role for much longer," added Ullyot, who maintains he resigned despite a Defense Department official saying he was asked to leave.
Top officials Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick were fired after being placed on leave during an internal investigation into "unauthorized disclosures" of national security information.
Continue reading at Axios
Economics
Schools, parents fear Trump trade war crossfire
Schools and parents are anxiously awaiting the impacts of President Trump’s tariff war, fearing the worst for a spike in the cost of food and school supplies.
The situation is fluid, with the president putting a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for most countries but keeping a 10 percent flat rate for most foreign products for now. On imports from China, the trade war has already escalated to 145 percent tariffs.
The unpredictability war is putting school officials and parents in a tough spot as the market fluctuates and economic uncertainty looms.
“It definitely will impact school districts and states in a number of different ways,” said Karl Rectanus, a former educator and administrator, pointing to everything from the cost of food for students to upgrades for technology that most schools bought five years ago during the pandemic.
Continue reading at The Hill
Arizona Democrats are suddenly engulfed in party chaos
The state party chair attacked Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego in a letter. They responded he “lost their trust.”
Arizona’s Democratic Party is in a meltdown.
Bitter infighting among the state’s top Democrats, apparently building for weeks, spilled into public view on Saturday when the state party chair, Robert E. Branscomb II, sent a letter to members of Arizona’s state Democratic committee attacking Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego and airing private disagreements among them.
The senators and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona’s secretary of state and attorney general shot back with a letter of their own declaring Branscomb “has lost their trust.”
“His statement today includes many false claims and is the kind of bad-faith response we’ve come to expect from the new leadership over the last several weeks,” they wrote in a letter that was forwarded to the Arizona Democratic Committee members by the vice chair of the party.
The back-and-forth between the leader of a state Democratic Party and the state’s top Democratic statewide elected officials marks an extraordinarily display of bickering in a critical swing state. It is potentially perilous for a Democratic operation in a place that Donald Trump flipped last year, and where Democrats in 2026 will be defending statewide offices including the governor’s.
In Branscomb’s original letter, he said his decision to dismiss the previous executive director angered Kelly, who he said “strongly discouraged” him in a telephone call “from making staffing charges without consulting him.”
Continue reading at Politico
With Trump back in power, World Bank walks a tightrope on climate work
The bank’s messaging on climate represents a delicate balancing act between the institution and the U.S., its largest shareholder.
The World Bank has softened its once-vocal cheerleading for climate action as the Trump administration evaluates its support for international organizations and works to cut funding for climate programs.
As head of the largest public development financier, World Bank President Ajay Banga has been emphasizing jobs and Republican-friendly energy sources like nuclear power and natural gas. He’s also defended its climate work when asked, saying recently that the bank’s climate investments don’t interfere with its core mission of poverty reduction. But that messaging signals a break with Banga’s robust public defense of the bank’s climate record under President Joe Biden, who nominated Banga in part to bolster green lending.
Former officials and at least five people familiar with the thinking inside the institution, some of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the bank is downplaying its messaging of climate work out of self-preservation even as its underlying climate policy has not changed.
“Now, do you want to scream this all loudly? Probably not in this environment. You don’t get much from doing that,” said Samir Suleymanov, a former World Bank official who directed its strategic initiatives unit.
The bank’s messaging on climate represents a delicate balancing act between the institution and the U.S., its largest shareholder. The U.S. has provided significant support for the arm of the bank that serves the world’s poorest nations, with the Biden administration pledging $4 billion before leaving office. That funding is still subject to approval in a Republican-controlled Congress, and withholding it would crimp investments to poorer nations struggling with multiple crises ranging from climate change to inflation to food insecurity.
Continue reading at Politico
Courier firm DHL to suspend global shipments of more than $800 to US due to new customs rules
DHL, the international courier firm, will temporarily pause shipments to the U.S. for items with a declared value of more than $800, the company announced in a notice.
The announcement said that, starting Monday, the company will stop collecting and shipping orders from businesses abroad to private individual customers in the U.S. if the declared custom value exceeds $800.
The suspension is temporary and will be in place “until further notice,” the notice said.
The announcement follows a change in U.S. customs regulations governing which items need to be formally declared upon entering the country. An updated policy, effective April 5, lowered the threshold from $2,500 to $800 for shipments to require formal declaration.
DHL said this has led to “multi-day transit delays,” compelling the company to suspend service temporarily.
“This change has caused a surge in formal customs clearances, which we are handling around the clock,” the notice said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Goolsbee says he hopes Fed maintains its monetary independence, citing credibility
Austan Goolsbee, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said he hopes the Federal Reserve maintains its monetary independence amid attacks from President Trump, citing the agency’s credibility.
Goolsbee joined CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday to weigh in on Trump’s pressure on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates as the president rolls out his tariff agenda.
“There’s virtual unanimity among economists that monetary independence from political interference, that the Fed or any central bank be able to do the job that it needs to do, is really important,” Goolsbee said.
He noted that monetary independence from politics is a long-standing idea that U.S. economists have decided upon after looking at other countries that don’t have such independence.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Clip of his appearance on ABC This Week is included in Video Features section
Health and Science News
RFK Jr. calls autism an epidemic: It ‘dwarfs COVID’
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a new interview, said autism was an epidemic with an impact that surpasses the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is an epidemic. It dwarfs the COVID epidemic and the impacts on our country because COVID killed old people. Autism affects children and affects them at the beginning of their lives, the beginning of their productivity,” Kennedy said during a Sunday interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
“And it’s absolutely debilitating for them, their families, their communities,” he added.
His statements come after the secretary faced scrutiny earlier this week for claiming “autism destroys families” at a Wednesday press conference.
In the past, Kennedy has also promoted anti-vaccine rhetoric with unproven theories that vaccinations are linked to autism.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), children have a greater risk for autism if there’s a family history of the disorder, if the mother experiences complications at birth or if chromosomal conditions pose a threat to their development.
Continue reading at The Hill
Medicaid cuts risk worsening Black maternal health crisis
Advocates are warning lawmakers that the proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will leave millions of pregnant Black women at a heightened risk of death, worsening the maternal mortality crisis and its racial disparities.
Last month, the House budget resolution proposed up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade, which would also lead to cuts to Medicare.
But advocates say Medicaid is a vital resource for cutting into the maternal mortality disparities.
“We often see these cuts as: We’re making sure that people who ‘don’t deserve’ these programs are not getting it. But in actuality, it’s disproportionately going to impact people of color, women of color,” Rolonda Donelson, Huber Reproductive Health Equity legal fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families, told The Hill.
While Medicaid finances about 40 percent of all births nationwide, more than 64 percent of births by Black moms are covered by Medicaid.
Still, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Some of these conditions include preeclampsia, postpartum hemorrhaging and blood clotting.
Continue reading at The Hill
Republicans are targeting a pillar of Obamacare. Millions of their own voters may pay a price
(CNN) — As the pressure grows on congressional Republicans to identify cuts in Medicaid, they are crashing into a familiar problem: The changes that could save the most money would impose heavy costs on many of their own voters.
Several key House Republicans have signaled in recent days that they may try to cut Medicaid spending by rolling back the expansion in eligibility for the working poor included in the Affordable Care Act approved under President Barack Obama.
That option may be attractive to Republicans partly because the states that have most aggressively used that authority to expand eligibility mostly lean Democratic. Most House districts where more people than the national average receive health coverage through the Medicaid expansion are also held by Democrats, according to an exclusive new CNN analysis of data from KFF, a non-partisan health care think tank.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Polling- Surveys
Most Americans in new survey believe their job is meaningful to society
Most Americans say they believe their job is meaningful to society, a new survey found.
According to the survey, released last week by YouGov, 62 percent of adult U.S. workers with full- or part-time jobs say they are meaningful.
Just 20 percent of Americans say their jobs are not making meaningful contributions to the world, which is less than a 2015 study in the United Kingdom, where 37 percent said their jobs were meaningless.
Women, by two percentage points, are more likely to say their jobs are making more of a contribution to the world, and full-time workers are more likely than part-time workers.
The survey found that people with more education are more likely to say they make a meaningful contribution, though all educational attainments rank above 50 percent.
YouGov noted that there’s recent debate about so-called “email jobs” that tend to focus on sending emails or attending emails instead of a position that directly provides a product or service.
Continue reading at The Hill
The Courts / Legal
How judges can hold Trump admin accountable for defying court orders
Some legal scholars are warning that Trump administration's reluctance — or outright refusal — to comply with court orders is setting the stage for a full-blown constitutional crisis.
Why it matters: In several instances, federal judges have said that the Trump administration is not taking sufficient steps to adhere to rulings. Courts aren't powerless. They can punish the executive branch in an effort to force compliance, experts say.
Case in point: The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man erroneously deported to El Salvador. Officials have contended that doesn't mean they have to return him, even after losing several appeals.
"The argument that they're in compliance with the Supreme Court's order and the district court's subsequent orders is ridiculous," said, David Noll, a law professor at Rutgers Law School.
"They're essentially thumbing their nose at the court," Noll said.
The latest: The Trump administration is now facing the possibility of a contempt ruling in Abrego Garcia's case and a separate immigration case.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Wednesday he had found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for defying his order to halt deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
The administration has defended the deportations, arguing the planes were already over international waters and that his order didn't apply.
Continue reading at Axios
What to know about birthright citizenship as it heads to Supreme Court
The Supreme Court said on Thursday that it will hear arguments next month over President Trump's efforts to restrict birthright citizenship.
Why it matters: Trump's bid to end the constitutionally guaranteed right for some is the centerpiece of his administration's sweeping immigration crackdown, in which he's already defied the Supreme Court.
State of play: The nation's highest court said it would hear oral arguments over the case on May 15.
Here's what to know:
What is birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship, as outlined by the Constitution's 14th Amendment, automatically confers citizenship to people born on U.S. soil – regardless of their parents' citizenship status.
There are two types in the U.S.: jus sanguinis, ancestry-based citizenship, and jus soli, birthplace-based citizenship.
In the former, which means "right of blood," children born abroad to at least one U.S. citizen parent may be entitled to U.S. citizenship, if they meet certain requirements.
Jus soli, on the other hand, is "the right of the soil" guaranteeing citizenship to almost everyone born in the U.S.
Zoom out: Birthright citizenship was added to the Constitution in the 14th Amendment after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship for formerly enslaved people who were newly freed.
The right was affirmed by the Supreme Court in the 1890s, cementing birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens.
Continue reading at Axios
Alito’s dissent in deportation case says court rushed to block Trump with middle-of-the night order
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court acted “literally in the middle of the night” and without sufficient explanation in blocking the Trump administration from deporting any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th-century wartime law, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a sharp dissent that castigated the seven-member majority.
Joined by fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito said there was “dubious factual support” for granting the request in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union. The group contended that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart such removals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The majority did not provide a detailed explanation in the order early Saturday, as is typical, but the court previously said deportations could proceed only after those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.
“Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law,” Alito said in the dissent released hours after the court’s intervention against Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.
Continue reading at the AP
Anti-DEI-Whitewashing
Nothing to see here, yet.
General News
Macron invited to UK state visit in May — ahead of Trump
With a relaunch of Britain-EU relations on the horizon, the French leader’s visit will take place months before the U.S. president.
U.K. King Charles III has invited French President Emmanuel Macron for a state visit in May, months before a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump that is expected to take place in September, The Sunday Times reported.
The first state visit by the French leader is being planned amid British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to relaunch relations with the European Union years after Brexit, while the U.K.’s historic American allies drift away and turn looking inward under Trump’s presidency.
Macron and Starmer have in recent months led a “coalition of the willing” composed by European countries seeking to agree on security guarantees for Ukraine in case a ceasefire is achieved with Russia.
As Macron schmoozes with the king in Windsor Castle, the U.K. and the EU are expected to seal a defense and security pact at a London summit on May 19 to boost military spending across Europe.
While defense has served as the first steppingstone in efforts to rebuild EU-U.K. ties, its implications on trade loom large, as the pact could pave the way for further negotiations such as an agri-food standards agreement to reduce trade bureaucracy and EU plans like improved mobility for young people and students.
In fact, defense pact is hinging on whether the U.K. will make concessions on fishing rights in English waters for EU fleets.
Both sides are expected to use next month’s meeting to reach a common understanding of which issues will be part of Starmer’s wider U.K.-EU relations relaunch.
Continue reading at Politico
This Canadian Mayor Once Revered Trump. Not Anymore.
Trump’s punishing tariffs have big implications for the upcoming Canadian election. It’s affecting personal relationships between the two countries, too.
Calder McHugh is deputy editor of POLITICO Nightly.
NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO — The mayor of Niagara Falls in Canada is not American, but he’s so close. Jim Diodati has an almost American accent, American cousins and an American best friend. He grew up watching American TV. A nephew played baseball at the University of Alabama. Diodati’s affinity for all things American was once so strong that he would have voted for Donald Trump.
“When he came out with The Art of the Deal in the mid ’80s, I bought it and loved it,” Diodati told me as we sat in his city hall office. “I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’d be an incredible president. We’d finally have a businessman running the country instead of a politician.’”
Now he’s had a rapid change of heart. Ever since Trump was elected in November and the new president began barraging his erstwhile allies with belittling comments about Canada being the “51st state” and then levied punishing tariffs on Canadian imports, Diodati has swung hard against the man he once revered.
Diodati’s new posture toward the U.S. president is evident on the mantelpiece in his office, where Diodati has prominently displayed two hats: “CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE” and a “51” with a line through it. They sit next to some newer décor, cannonballs from the war of 1812 — the last time the United States tried (unsuccessfully) to conquer Canada in an armed conflict.
“I liked him. I was still defending him in the beginning [of his second term],” Diodati said. “It was when he put us in his sights and made us look like the bad guy — more than anything, it was just hurtful … and then the 51st state talk, it went from hurtful to offensive.”
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
JD Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday
The vice president had tangled with the pontiff over migration.
VATICAN CITY — Vice President JD Vance met briefly with Pope Francis on Sunday to exchange Easter greetings, after they got into a long-distance tangle over the Trump administration’s migrant deportation plans.
Vance’s motorcade entered Vatican City through a side gate and parked near Francis’ hotel residence while Easter Mass was being celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. Francis, who has greatly cut back his workload to recover from a near-fatal case of pneumonia, delegated the celebration of the Mass to another cardinal.
The Vatican said they met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta “to exchange Easter greetings.” Vance’s office said that they met, but provided no further details. In all, Vance’s motorcade was on Vatican territory for 17 minutes.
Vance and the pope have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport migrants en masse. Francis has made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy.
Just days before he was hospitalized in February, Francis blasted the Trump administration’s deportation plans, warning that they would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity. In a letter to U.S. bishops, Francis also appeared to respond to Vance directly for having claimed that Catholic doctrine justified such policies.
Vance has acknowledged Francis’ criticism but has said he will continue to defend his views. During a Feb. 28 appearance at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Vance didn’t address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.”
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, on Saturday.
Continue reading at Politico
Pope Francis emerges from convalescence on Easter, delights crowd with popemobile tour
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis emerged from his convalescence on Easter Sunday to bless the thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square and treat them to a surprise popemobile romp through the piazza, drawing wild cheers and applause as he continues his recovery from a near-fatal bout of double pneumonia.
“Viva il Papa!” (Long live the pope), “Bravo!” the crowd shouted as Francis looped through the square in his open-topped popemobile and then up and down the main avenue leading to it. He stopped occasionally to bless babies brought up to him, a scene that was common in the past but unthinkable just a few weeks ago as the 88-year-old Francis fought for his life.
“Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!” Francis said, his voice sounding stronger than it has since his hospitalization.
Francis didn’t celebrate the Easter Mass in the piazza, delegating it to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the retired archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. But after the Mass ended, Francis appeared on the loggia balcony over the basilica entrance for more than 20 minutes and imparted the apostolic blessing in Latin. The thousands of people below erupted in cheers as a military band kicked off rounds of the Holy See and Italian anthems.
Continue reading at the AP
Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday after tangle over migration, gets chocolate eggs for kids
VATICAN CITY (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance met briefly with Pope Francis on Sunday to exchange Easter greetings, after they got into a long-distance tangle over the Trump administration’s migrant deportation plans.
Francis, who is recovering from a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, received Vance in one of the reception rooms of the Vatican hotel where he lives. The 88-year-old pope offered the Catholic vice president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries.
“I know you have not been feeling great but it’s good to see you in better health,” Vance told the pope. “Thank you for seeing me.”
Vance’s motorcade entered Vatican City through a side gate while Easter Mass was being celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. Francis had delegated the celebration of the Mass to another cardinal.
The Vatican said they met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta “to exchange Easter greetings.” Vance’s office said that they met, but provided no further details. In all, Vance’s motorcade was on Vatican territory for 17 minutes.
Continue reading at the AP
Speaking of being more Catholic than the Pope, this, about Ross Douthat, who has long criticized Francis…
1 big thing: If you read only 1 thing today
If you're heading out into the world — or have a young person in your life who craves depth, or is trying to find their place in disorienting, tectonic times — Ross Douthat's column in today's New York Times is worth sharing, discussing and stress-testing.
"An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here's How to Survive" argues that "for anything that you care about — from your nation to your worldview to your favorite art form to your family — the key challenge of the 21st century is making sure that it's still there on the other side."
Douthat — whose new podcast, "Interesting Times," aims to grapple with the cultural and cosmic consequences of technological acceleration — issues "an appeal for intentionality against drift, for purpose against passivity — and ultimately for life itself against extinction":
"[H]ow much survives will depend on our own deliberate choices — the choice to date and love and marry and procreate, the choice to fight for particular nations and traditions and art forms and worldviews, the choice to limit our exposure to the virtual, not necessarily refusing new technology but trying every day, in every setting, to make ourselves its master."
Douthat contends that to make it through our tech-induced "bottleneck," as evolutionary biologists call it — a period of rapid pressure that threatens groups with extinction — "the necessary thing is to go out into reality and do":
"Have the child. Practice the religion. Found the school. Support the local theater, the museum, the opera or concert hall, even if you can see it all on YouTube. Pick up the paintbrush, the ball, the instrument. Learn the language — even if there's an app for it. Learn to drive, even if you think soon Waymo or Tesla will drive for you. Put up headstones, don't just burn your dead. Sit with the child, open the book, and read."
Continue reading at Axios
Putin violating his own Easter truce, Zelenskyy says
Moscow said its forces were “strictly observing” the ceasefire and accused Ukraine of violating the pause in fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has violated a self-imposed Easter ceasefire in his Ukraine war with several strikes and assaults overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
“We can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places it is still trying to make individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel.
The Kremlin on Saturday announced a unilateral ceasefire on the occasion of Easter until midnight Sunday. But Saturday night the Ukrainian army already reported continued Russian attacks with artillery and drones — in line with Moscow’s long history of violating ceasefires.
“Between midnight and noon today, Russian forces have already carried out 26 assaults,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post at midday Sunday. “We are documenting every Russian violation of its self-declared commitment to a full ceasefire for the Easter period and are prepared to provide the necessary information to our partners. In practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war,” he said.
Zelenskyy vowed to “mirror” Putin’s actions in the Kursk, Belgorod, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, among others.
Continue reading at Politico
This Midwestern city has long been a federal hub. The pain from DOGE’s cuts is everywhere
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In her 28 years working for the federal government, Shea Giagnorio provided day care for the children of U.S. soldiers, training for employees and oversight for safety net programs.
Public service took her from Germany to Alaska to Kansas City, Missouri, where she moved last year for a long-sought promotion.
But when she reported to a downtown federal building for work one day last month, her access card did not work. After a co-worker let her into the building, she checked her email: Her entire office had been let go in the latest mass firing ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The 46-year-old single mom has canceled her apartment lease, is selling her new furniture and may have to pull her daughter of college. She wonders what will happen to the at-risk populations her team helped serve at the Administration for Children and Families, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Not only me, but all these peoples’ lives are turned upside down,” Giagnorio said.
The impact of the cuts by Trump appointees and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency can be found everywhere in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which has long been a major hub for federal agencies about 1,000 miles away from Washington, D.C. Money once promised to the region for public health, environmental, diversity, food aid and an array of other programs has been axed, and thousands of local jobs are in jeopardy.
Continue reading at the AP
Playbook
Decision time on the border
DECISION DAY: On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border. It gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 90 days to submit a report to him advising on conditions there and “whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”
Welcome to Day 90. That deadline is here, and the Hegseth-Noem recommendation is due.
What will they suggest? CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Jake Tapper and Priscilla Alvarez report that Hegseth and Noem are not expected to recommend invoking the act, and will tell the president “that border crossings are currently low and that they don’t need additional authorities at this point to help control the flow of migrants.” That reporting has not yet been matched by other outlets.
Invoking the Insurrection Act could allow the president to “use active-duty forces trained for combat overseas or federalized National Guard troops to suppress a ‘rebellion,’ temporarily suspending the Posse Comitatus Act, which typically restricts the use of military involvement in domestic law enforcement,” WaPo’s Dan Lamothe and Marianne LeVine write.
There’s some history here: During his first term, amid mass civil rights protests following the murder of George Floyd by police, Trump was interested in invoking the act and deploying the military to suppress demonstrations. (The NYT later reported that aides went so far as to draft a proclamation doing just that.) That spurred a standoff with Gen. Mark Milley and top brass at the Pentagon, who vehemently opposed the idea.
Now, Trump has fewer guardrails and more accommodating advisers and Cabinet officials. Where first-term Defense Secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper routinely reined in some of Trump’s extreme decisions, Hegseth is widely regarded as a MAGA true believer — a fact that was a major selling point in his favor as Trump built his second-term administration.
And recent precedent — like Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in the ongoing wave of deportations — suggests an administration willing to invoke arcane laws to pursue its policy agenda and throttle institutions it sees as hostile to Trump’s ends.
The president’s bulldozer approach figured heavily in protests across the country this weekend, as demonstrators decried “what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals,” AP’s Philip Marcelo writes. “The disparate events ranged from a march through midtown Manhattan and a rally in front of the White House to a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of ‘the shot heard ’round the world’ on April 19, 1775, marking the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.”
Continue reading the Politico Playbook newsletter
‘Bonkers crazypants’: American diplomats shaken by reports of possible cuts
Purported executive order calls for slashing State Department offices and bureaus and overhauling how diplomatic postings work.
U.S. diplomats were shaken and even panicked during the weekend as a document purporting to be a draft executive order that would radically reshape the State Department circulated and boosted their fears of massive job cuts.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed reports of the document as “fake news,” but the jitters underscored how alarmed many are about the lengths the Trump administration will go to to reshape the State Department as part of a so-called efficiency drive.
The document calls for eliminating scores of traditional State Department offices and bureaus and overhauling how Foreign Service postings work. Among other changes, it would eliminate the regional bureau devoted to Africa and shrink the U.S. diplomatic presence in Canada.
POLITICO obtained the document and two current and one former official familiar with the matter verified the proposal has been circulated inside the department but couldn’t confirm when it was drafted, by whom, or how it pertained to the Trump administration’s final reorganization plan.
A State Department spokesperson called the draft “a fake document.”
The administration is planning to announce its reorganization plans as soon as Tuesday, which could come in the form of notices to the Department, two U.S. officials said.
The speed at which the document circulated among diplomats over the weekend — real or not — speaks to how on-edge State Department officials are over the fate of their agency amid the Trump administration’s drive to drastically slash government bureaucracy.
Diplomats sharing the draft with each other said they were puzzled by the logic undergirding it. One U.S. diplomat described the draft to POLITICO as “bonkers crazypants.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump ‘trying to change the subject’ on deportee, Van Hollen says
Speaking in multiple interviews, Sen. Chris Van Hollen discussed the implications of the Abrego Garcia case.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Sunday the White House is seeking to distract from the most pressing points in the saga around its unlawful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — an unprecedented denial of his constitutional rights and the flouting of an order from the nation’s top court.
“We have a lawless president who is ignoring the order of the Supreme Court of the United States to facilitate his return,” Van Hollen, fresh off a midweek trip to El Salvador in which he succeeded in meeting the Maryland resident, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” one of a series of Sunday morning TV appearances.
“That’s what’s going on right now. That is a risk to all of us. And so all of this other stuff, you can ask about it, but they need to put up or shut up in the courts of the United States.”
Fixating on Abrego Garcia’s past, and what he might or might not have done, Van Hollen told Bash, misses the bigger point.
“He’s being denied his due process rights,” Van Hollen told Bash. “And Donald Trump is trying to change the subject. And, you know, when people start asking about asking that question, in my view, they’re falling into the president’s trap.”
Abrego Garcia, who illegally entered the U.S. around 2011, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March despite an immigration court order mandating he not be brought back to his country of origin due to fears he could be persecuted by a local gang.
Continue reading at Politico
ABC News anchor presses Homan on whether Trump could get Bukele to cooperate in Abrego Garcia case
n an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Homan recognized that the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody and return to the U.S. — after the administration previously acknowledged he had been mistakenly deported.
Homan added, however, that Abrego Garcia is “a national of the country, so El Salvador would certainly have to cooperate in that.”
Karl zeroed in on that claim, pushing Homan to acknowledge that Trump could compel Bukele’s cooperation if he wanted to.
“But you said that El Salvador would have to cooperate. You have no doubt that if President Trump wanted him returned, that he could ask President Bukele to return him, right?” Karl asked. “I mean, President Trump could make this happen.”
Speaking over the ABC anchor, Homan responded, “I am not involved in the discussion. I can’t comment on something I don’t know. “
Continue reading at The Hill, watch below:
GOP senator says Trump shouldn’t send Americans to foreign prisons: ‘We have our own laws’
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Sunday he does not think the law would allow President Trump to send United States citizens convicted of violent crimes to Salvadoran prisons, despite the president’s suggestion that he might be open to that possibility.
“No, ma’am. Nor should it be considered appropriate or moral,” Kennedy told NBC News’s Kristen Welker when asked on “Meet the Press” whether he thinks such a move would be legal.
“We have our own laws,” he continued. “We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.”
Trump, in a meeting Monday with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, indicated he would be open to sending American citizens who are violent criminals to El Salvador to be held in a notorious prison there. He told reporters that Attorney General Pam Bondi is looking into the law on the matter.
“If it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem,” Trump said. “Now, we’re studying the laws right now. Pam is studying. If we can do that, that’s good. And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in.”
Continue reading at The Hill, watch the full hour of Meet The Press in the Video Features section below
Zeldin says he can ‘absolutely’ assure public EPA deregulation efforts won’t harm environment
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said he can “absolutely” assure the public that the various deregulation efforts undergone by the agency will not harm the environment.
Zeldin joined CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where he was asked if he could ensure the deregulation wouldn’t have an adverse impact.
“Absolutely,” he replied. “We have to both protect the environment and grow the economy.”
Zeldin argued that it’s what the American people are demanding out of the Trump administration. He criticized Biden-era regulations that were “targeting entire industries.”
“When the American public went to vote last November, they were talking about economic concerns, about struggling to make ends meet. That includes the cost of being able to heat their home,” he said. “The choice of whether or not to be able to heat their home or fill up their fridge with groceries or afford prescription medication.”
Zeldin’s remarks come about a month after the Trump administration unveiled a list of climate and pollution regulations they were looking to dismantle.
Continue reading at The Hill, watch Face The Nation in the Video Features section below
Burgum rues ‘war on mining’ ahead of tariff negotiations with China
Still, there’s no one better than the commander-in-chief to bring Beijing to the negotiation table, Burgum said.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Sunday said he is confident President Donald Trump will negotiate a tariff deal with China, but stressed that building up national production of rare-earth minerals is a key element of the equation.
“And this began back — you go back to Obama, Biden administration,” Burgum told host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ve basically been at war on mining in this country for anything, not just rare earth minerals, critical minerals, but base minerals that we would have.”
The trade clash with China that Trump escalated in early April could cost billions. And despite the president’s confidence that a deal could be clinched “over the next three or four weeks,” his insistence on one-on-one talks with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, appears to have stalled proceedings.
In the meantime, the administration is looking to beef up domestic mineral supply, Burgum told Bream. In March, the White House announced a series of “immediate measures to increase American mineral production,” expediting permitting approvals and enlarging developers’ access to federal land and loan programs. The president had already declared a national energy emergency shortly after his swearing-in in January.
“And so, under President Trump, it’s not just drill, baby drill, it’s going to be map, baby map, which is we’ve got these materials in our country, but then also mine, baby mine,” he said.
Still, Burgum said, there’s no one better than the commander-in-chief to bring Beijing to the negotiation table.
Continue reading at Politico
Massachusetts governor says Trump’s policies are harmful to science
“Essentially, Donald Trump is giving away intellectual assets,” Gov. Maura Healey said.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Sunday said the Trump administration’s “bad for science” policies will send America’s researchers into the arms of China and other nations.
Addressing the administration’s ongoing battle with Harvard University and its cuts to scientific and medical research, the Massachusetts Democrat said on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “Research labs are shutting down, scientists and researchers are leaving the United States and going to other countries to do their work. And essentially, Donald Trump is giving away intellectual assets.”
Speaking to guest host Weijia Jiang, Healey said that President Donald Trump is damaging the nation’s status as the world leader in scientific research.
“As governor, I want Massachusetts soaring,” she said. “I want America soaring. And what Donald Trump is doing is basically saying to China and other ... countries, come to the United States, take our scientists, take our researchers and that, and that’s what’s happening.”
Though the interview also dealt with significant cuts to the National Institutes for Health and other institutions, there was specific discussion of Harvard’s statement last week that it would not bow to the administration’s demands to change its policies in order to continue to receive federal funding.
“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,” Harvard President Alan Garber said.
Continue reading at Politico
How Mark Zuckerberg is flipping the script on kids’ safety online
The Facebook founder is lobbying Congress to leave his firm alone — and making headway.
To protect kids online, Mark Zuckerberg says Congress should focus on Apple and Google — not Facebook and Instagram.
The Meta CEO, owner of the two social media sites, is flooding Washington with ads aimed at convincing lawmakers to require his rivals’ app stores to verify shoppers’ ages and require parental consent for kids to download social media apps.
Last year, Zuckerberg was able to convince House Speaker Mike Johnson to shelve a bill that would have required Facebook and Instagram to make design changes to protect kids from bullying, sexual exploitation and other online ills. If he succeeds now in convincing Republicans to target Apple and Google instead it will show how much headway he has made with the GOP majority in Congress.
There is already evidence Zuckerberg is swaying the people who matter.
“They are doing a very good job distracting from any legislation that would hold them accountable,” said Ava Smithing, director of advocacy and operations at the Young People’s Alliance, an advocacy group that favors regulation of social media.
An app store age-verification bill is now one of the most high-profile pieces of legislation a powerful House committee is considering to address kids’ safety online.
“Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child’s age and approve the apps they download. The best place to do this is on the app store, and our ads reinforce the need for legislation that puts parents in charge,” Meta said in a statement.
Continue reading at Politico
‘Just chaos’: How Trump’s White House could swing the war on Big Tech
Google and Meta are both under breakup threat at once. Apple and Amazon’s trials are next. And through it all, Washington wonders — will Trump bail them all out?
This week marks a moment of truth for Washington’s push to rein in Big Tech — a yearslong and often fruitless battle to curb the power of the world’s richest companies.
After years of empty threats from Congress, two major antitrust cases have landed two companies in court at once.
Google has now lost twice to the Department of Justice and faces a remedy trial Monday that could see the company broken up to fix its illegal monopoly in online search. Just down the hallway, Meta will kick off its second week in court defending itself against a breakup threat from the Federal Trade Commission.
The cases have spanned two administrations and seem to unite tech critics on both the left and right. And if the government gets its way, the trials raise the real possibility of a reshaped Silicon Valley.
But Big Tech breakups are by no means assured. The government notched only a partial win against Google in last week’s ruling over its advertising monopoly, a stumble that makes a breakup less likely. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has also expressed significant skepticism about the FTC’s case against Meta.
President Donald Trump is the biggest wildcard. Despite pressure from MAGA supporters who regard Big Tech as the enemy, many in Washington believe the president sees these cases less as history-making pushback against corporate power and more as a form of leverage.
“Trump has marketed himself as the kind of president who can be courted and is prepared to make law enforcement decisions based on his own personal best interests,” said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a Vanderbilt University law professor. “And so what we know is that tech companies are trying to take advantage of this.”
Continue reading at Politico
He was too conservative for the Republican Party. Now he’s a leading candidate.
Bill Spadea, a leading contender to be governor of New Jersey, had a tumultuous conservative upbringing that put him at odds with fellow Republicans.
NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey — As a young conservative activist in the 1990s, Bill Spadea stood proudly to the right in the Republican Party.
He eschewed the “big tent” axiom espoused by Republicans. He said President George H.W. Bush and the RNC’s leadership were not conservative enough. He described himself as “anti-homosexual.” And as chair of the College Republican National Committee, his fundraising tactics were condemned by multiple U.S. senators — including the late Bob Dole (R-Kan.).
Now, Spadea is running for governor of New Jersey by trying to brand himself as the Republican candidate most aligned with President Donald Trump, who came within six points of winning the Garden State in 2024. The former conservative talk radio host is pledging to defund Planned Parenthood, espousing an “unwavering” commitment to the Second Amendment and calling for a carbon copy of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The MAGA brand of Republicanism isn’t just fueled by political upstarts — it’s also giving longtime ideologues their biggest stage yet. Spadea’s candidacy tests whether the once-insurgent right, sidelined for years even inside the GOP, can resonate in a state where the party has traditionally preferred moderate Republicans for governor.
“Bill has been an ideologue – he’s always been an ideologue of true conservative principles,” Fred Bartlett Jr., who worked at the college RNC during Spadea’s time in office, said in an interview.
Continue reading at Politico
This high school course is dividing districts across California
The fight over ethnic studies is creating a quiet headache for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In January, the Palo Alto school board met to discuss requiring high schoolers to take courses covering the displacement of Native Americans and the Black Panthers’ role in the Civil Rights Movement. For one school board member, the day ended with death threats.
Teaching ethnic studies — courses about different cultures and historically marginalized groups — would not appear a likely source of controversy in the deep-blue, immigrant-heavy, Silicon Valley city. But years of tension boiled over on a brisk winter night, over how the curriculum was released and the way oppression would be taught. In a school district where Asian students represent 40 percent of enrollees, some immigrants feel that the courses define power and privilege in a way that undermines the accomplishments of ethnic minorities.
“Asian Americans, many of whom came here with nothing and worked their way up from nothing — they see this course that labels us as privileged and powerful and perpetuating systemic oppression for having the audacity to build a good life,” said Karthi Gottipati, a student at Palo Alto High School who served as the student board representative last year.
Similar clashes are playing out in school districts around California as the deadline approaches to implement the nation’s first requirement that students complete such a course before graduating high school. Just this month, two other Northern California school districts have grappled with allegations of antisemitism in ethnic studies material. And now looming over those local curricular battles are President Donald Trump, who has threatened to pull federal funding from schools pursuing diversity initiatives, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, newly wary of the courses as he looks to break with his party on symbolically resonant issues ahead of a potential presidential run.
Continue reading at Politico
Recommended read:
How the Republic Falls
Constitutional protections suspended. The government purging “alien enemies” and the “enemy within.” Three months into Trumpist rule, despotism is rising in America
Salvadoran President Bukele proposes prisoner swap with Maduro for Venezuelan deportees
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.
In a post on the social media platform X, directed at President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year.
“The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.”
Among those he listed were the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González, a number of political leaders seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, and what he said were 50 detained citizens from a number of different countries across the world. Bukele also listed the mother of opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose house the political leader has said was surrounded by Venezuelan police in January.
Continue reading at the AP
Chocolate: The biggest star of Easter celebrations across the world • FRANCE 24 English
Economic Analysis
Economist Jared Bernstein
Economist Dean Baker
Economist Mike Konczal
When Reality Isn't Bad Enough: Trump’s Fake ‘Private-Sector Recession’ of 2024
In which we dive into the labor market of 2024 and the question of whether an increase in health care jobs is evidence of or justification for a recession.
“Were we in a secret labor market recession in 2024? Was the labor market experiencing a ‘private-sector recession’ as the Trump administration took over? No. But as the reality of Trump's disastrous trade war and the growing threat of an actual recession set in, we’ll hear more of this excuse from Trump officials. It’s wrong—and worse, the Trump team's current actions represent the most harmful response possible to any underlying economic slowdown.”
The Federal Reserve vs. the Tariff Shock: What If It Isn’t Transitory?
As global supply chains fray and the economy veers towards recession, the Federal Reserve faces a different spin on a recent problem — one it can’t fully fix.
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Opinion: Thanks, George! Biden II would, indeed, have been a disaster... | Blog#42
Jake Tapper got himself an interview with George Clooney, the man who single handedly tanked Joe Biden’s bid for reelection last year, so late in the cycle that it is doubtful that any Democrat would have had the time to run a proper campaign. Clooney, an old hand at fundraising for Democrats, must have known it and decided to accuse Biden of what we all knew: old age, thereby forcing the party to turn against him and get him to exit left. Tapper was very delicate with Clooney, never once asking a tough question or getting Clooney to apologize to the rest of us. If anything, Tapper was the googoo-eyed fan boy interviewer.