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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 9
FIRED GUN
He has been replaced by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll after he reportedly did not show face in an ATF facility for weeks.
Josh Fiallo
Breaking News Reporter

FBI Director Kash Patel has been quietly removed as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives after he stopped showing up to facilities there, according to a report.

Patel, who remains in his FBI role, had not been “seen inside an ATF facility for weeks” and has been replaced by the U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, sources told NBC News. Driscoll will reportedly continue working in both roles.

Glenn Thrush, a New York Times reporter based in Washington, called the hush-hush swap of Patel for Driscoll “unusual.” He later reported the change was because Patel’s “plate was too full” at the FBI. A Department of Justice official confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that the change occurred.
Zachary Basu

President Trump's epic tariff retreat shows there is no grand strategy for revolutionizing global trade, and that he's governing — as he always has — through gut instinct.

Why it matters: Trump's allies see a genius at work. His critics see a madman steering the economy toward crisis. And Wall Street sees, for the first time in weeks, a president who is receptive to external pain.

The big picture: Trump's stunning 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs — announced just one week after "Liberation Day" — caught virtually the entire world by surprise.

In one fell swoop, Trump shelved his maximalist tariff ambitions, intensified his trade war with China, and unleashed one of the biggest stock market rallies since World War II.
The tariff climbdown was vintage Trump: chaotic in execution, dramatic in tone, and instantly rebranded as a MAGA masterstroke.

What they're saying: "Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt scolded reporters.

"You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American President in history," tweeted White House adviser Stephen Miller.
By Joe Cash and Yukun Zhang

BEIJING, April 11 (Reuters) - China hiked its levies on imports of U.S. goods to 125% on Friday, hitting back at Donald Trump's decision to single out the world's No.2 economy for higher duties, while dismissing the U.S. president's tariff strategy as "a joke."
By Nayera Abdallah

DUBAI, April 11 (Reuters) - Iran said on Friday it was giving high-level nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday "a genuine chance", after President Donald Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed.

Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, a Gulf state that has mediated between the West and the Islamic Republic before.

Investors had been waiting to see how Beijing would respond to Trump's move on Wednesday to effectively raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% while announcing a 90-day pause on duties on dozens of other countries' goods. The yuan slipped to levels last seen during the global financial crisis on Thursday but rebounded slightly on Friday.
By Stephen Fowler, Jude Joffe-Block

One of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency lieutenants working in the Social Security Administration has been pushing dubious claims about noncitizens voting, apparently using access to data that court records suggest DOGE isn't supposed to have.

The staffer, Antonio Gracias, made the claims as part of larger misleading statements about the SSA's enumeration-beyond-entry, or EBE program, which streamlines the process for granting Social Security cards to certain categories of eligible immigrants.

Gracias said in an April 2 appearance on Fox and Friends that "5-plus million" noncitizens who "came to the country as illegals" received Social Security numbers "through an automatic system" and proceeded to "get into our benefit systems."
Story by Owen Chase

Trump’s business record isn’t just real estate towers and licensing deals—it’s also littered with abandoned ventures that didn’t deliver on their promises. While some collapsed under market forces, others stumbled from mismanagement, bad timing, or branding that simply didn’t hold up. These failures are key to understanding how the Trump brand has operated over time.

Trump University
©Credit: Reddit
It was marketed as an insider education in real estate, but Trump University operated without accreditation and was staffed by instructors with little to no industry success. Legal scrutiny followed quickly, with lawsuits alleging fraud and deceptive practices. By 2017, the enterprise ended in a $25 million settlement and closed the chapter on a venture that left thousands disillusioned.

Trump Casinos
©Credit: flickr
From the Trump Taj Mahal to Trump Plaza, the current president’s casinos promised extravagance but hemorrhaged money. The Taj Mahal alone filed for bankruptcy multiple times before closing in 2016. Trump Castle and Trump World’s Fair didn’t fare much better. These ventures highlight a pattern: high-profile launches, overwhelming debt, and eventual fire-sale exits under new names.

Trump Mortgage
©Credit: X
Launched in 2006 as the housing market teetered on collapse, Trump Mortgage failed to secure credibility or sustainable revenue. Its CEO exaggerated his resume, and the company was derailed by the 2008 mortgage crisis. Less than 18 months after its debut, it folded—another example of bold branding colliding with an unforgiving market.
Story by Spencer Soper and Lily Meier

(Bloomberg) -- Companies are slapping “Trump tariff” surcharges on customers’ bills in a bid to signal where price hikes are coming from, a marketing gimmick that could help some niche brands cash in on the politically charged moment.

Such finger-pointing fees would inevitably alienate some customers, which is why the surcharges aren’t expected to be prominent features of post-tariff shopping. Still, some business owners say it’s better to tell shoppers directly why the cost of their goods are rising.

“We think transparency is the way to go here and I am giving Trump full credit for his decision to add this Tariff to all US consumers,” Ryan Babenzien said when he announced his plan for Jolie Skin Co., which makes filtered-water showerheads.

Jolie will impose a “Trump Liberation Tariff” surcharge starting next week, Babenzien said. His company is still calculating what the fee will be on top of the cost of a $150 showerhead. His team is building software in-house to add the fee to products purchased on its website, which runs on Shopify Inc.’s platform.

Online forums are already teeming with advice on how business owners logistically can add tariff fees to their websites, and even suggesting that Shopify, a platform that hosts more than 5 million online storefronts, should include such a tool in its basic package. Shopify doesn’t currently offer such a line-item tool, but its clients can still customize their websites by hiring programmers or purchasing separate applications.
Story by Jake Johnson

A video clip of U.S. President Donald Trump openly boasting about enriching his billionaire friends is drawing outrage as the administration faces growing scrutiny for possible market manipulation and insider trading in the aftermath of his partial tariff pause.

"He made two-and-a-half billion today," Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, just hours after announcing the pause, "and he made $900 million."

"That's not bad," the president added.

Trump was referring to wealth gains that investor Charles Schwab and businessman Roger Penske—both billionaires—notched during a historic stock market rally sparked by the president's decision to pump the brakes on massive tariffs he imposed on most countries across the globe. (Trump left in place a 10% universal tariff on imports.)

The market surge added over $300 billion to the collective wealth of the world's top billionaires in a matter of hours, according to Bloomberg. Shortly before announcing the tariff pause, Trump posted to his social media platform that it is a "great time to buy" stocks, prompting accusations of market manipulation.

Watch the Oval Office video:
A Wall Street Journal analysis of daily financial statements issued by the Treasury Department found that government spending since the inauguration in January is $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the Biden administration.
Story by Suhauna Hussain, Andrea Chang

On Tuesday, a trickle of visitors traversed the sidewalks of star-studded Hollywood Boulevard, which is usually bustling this time of year with families and students on spring break trips. Parked open-air tour buses and vans were largely empty.

But Jose Ayon, manager at La La Land, a souvenir and gift shop, was not surprised. Foot traffic has struggled to rebound after the pandemic shutdowns and now global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration could make matters worse.

That morning, Ayon said, several vendors that supply mugs, chocolates, plates, magnets and other knickknacks to the store told him that they would hike prices as much as 30%.

"It's pretty concerning," said Ayon, who has worked at the store for 10 years. "Everyone in the back is panicking."

In the face of market turmoil, Trump on Wednesday paused some of the tariffs he had imposed on most countries, while escalating duties on China.

But the twists and turns in the trade war have shaken Wall Street and deepened anxieties among business owners in Los Angeles and nationwide who fear a rise in prices and a disruption in their supply chains.

The fallout for tourism to L.A.
Among the casualties in the ongoing trade hostilities is tourism. Amid news of visa cancellations and deportations, state and local tourism officials are increasingly worried about the potential adverse effects on travel to Los Angeles and California.

“California’s message to all visitors remains the same: You’re welcomed and respected," Caroline Beteta, president of Visit California, the state's marketing agency, said in a statement.
Story by Tom Boggioni

According to a new report from the Washington Post, a senior official in the Social Security Administration was marched out of his office after he confronted one of Elon Musk's outside hires over a change in policy that he deemed illegal.

The report states that "well-regarded" official Greg Pearre raised objections when Scott Coulter, the newly installed chief information officer, detailed his plans to transfer the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, thereby halting their ability to make a living by working.

According to the report, Pearre told Coulter, "the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead, according to three people familiar with the event," which led to his being escorted out of his office and placed on leave.
By Alex Marquardt, Abbas Al Lawati and Kylie Atwood, CNN

CNN — Delegations from Iran and the United States will meet again next week after wrapping up “constructive” nuclear talks that included the first direct contact between a Trump administration and an Iranian official, according to Iran’s state news agency.

The talks, held in the Gulf Arab nation of Oman and mediated by its Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi, were largely indirect, with the Omani minister relaying messages between the two delegations that were seated in separate rooms, Iranian media reported. The American side was represented by the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Iranian and Omani officials said.

The meetings were held “in a constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect.” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

“After more than two and a half hours of indirect negotiations, the heads of the Iranian and American delegations spoke for a few minutes in the presence of the Omani foreign minister as they left the talks,” the agency reported.

Speaking to state media after the meeting, Araghchi said the next round of talks will be held in Oman on April 19, adding that Saturday’s meeting “got very close” to reaching a framework for negotiations. Both sides said they are seeking an agreement in the shortest time possible, he said.
A simple math error has resulted in tariffs four times higher than they should be. Conservative economists claim the White House used the wrong elasticity value in their controversial formula.
Story by Katie Hawkinson

Companies across the country are adding a surcharge to customers’ bills in the wake of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

On April 2, Trump announced blanket tariffs of at least 10 percent on nearly every country, in what he called “Liberation Day” for the U.S. Then, on Wednesday he paused these tariffs for 90 days, citing Americans becoming “yippy” and “afraid.”

He only excluded China from the pause and is now engaged in a trade war with Xi Jinping as the U.S. levies 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods while Beijing has put a 125 percent retaliatory tariff in place.

Now, U.S. business owners say they’re passing along higher prices to customers as Trump’s trade war with China continues and they brace for the end of the 90-day pause.

Sexual wellness brand Dame has added a $5 “Trump tariff surcharge” to all purchases automatically, CBS News reports.

"Our whole industry is in China, so we've already seen the impact," Dame CEO Alexandra Fine told CBS.

"The intention of adding the Trump tariff surcharge as a line item at checkout was to remind people that this is an extra tax on us. I wanted people to understand why it's more expensive — that it's because of political decisions that were made," she added.
Story by Richard Ashmore, John O'Sullivan

Europe appears to be shifting its gaze from west to east, as leaders lean towards China for trade agreements rather than aligning with President Donald Trump of the United States, with the news coming just days after China's huge economic decision that was described as an 'act of hybrid warfare' and designed to 'punish Trump.'

Euronews has reported that following President Trump's infamous "reciprocal tariffs" - which China responded to with huge tariff hikes on certain goods - speech at the White House earlier this month, the first call made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was to China.

The European Commission, which had previously provided President Trump a stern warning over his tariffs, issued an official statement saying: "In response to the widespread disruption caused by the US tariffs, President von der Leyen stressed the responsibility of Europe and China, as two of the world's largest markets, to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field.
Story by Dave Michaels, Richard Vanderford, James Fanelli

Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz were on the verge of going to trial on charges of scheming to pay bribes in India when President Trump issued an executive order that put enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act on hold.

It was a bolt of good luck for the former executives for Cognizant Technology Solutions, who had denied wrongdoing. The case had been dragging on for six years. Within two months, a new top prosecutor appointed by Trump dropped it.

“There was a tremendous sense of relief,” said Lawrence Lustberg, a lawyer for Schwartz.

The Trump administration is retreating from some types of white-collar law enforcement, including cases involving foreign bribery, public corruption, money laundering and crypto markets. In some cases, the administration is effectively redefining what business conduct constitutes a crime.

Trump’s executive order in February said bribery prosecutions hurt the ability of American companies to compete overseas, punishing them for practices that are routine in some parts of the world. That pronouncement could upend dozens of cases and investigations.

At the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered prosecutors to focus their anti-money-laundering and sanctions-evasion attention on drug cartels and international crime organizations.

A few themes are emerging: Prosecuting executives for wrongdoing that doesn’t have obvious victims is out. The Justice Department is open to arguments that a defendant has been targeted for political reasons, or that some prosecutions undermine economic competitiveness and national-security interests. And political connections within Trump’s world seem to matter.
Story by Janna Brancolini

President Donald Trump’s policies could cost the U.S. economy $90 billion this year in lost tourism and export revenue, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. Many foreign visitors are avoiding the U.S. over concerns about increased hostility at the border, including reports about European tourists being detained for weeks in U.S. immigration centers.
Story by Mary Papenfuss

Angry voters pelted Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley Tuesday with complaints and questions about the Trump administration’s apparent defiance of an order from the Supreme Court.

“If I get a court order to pay $1,200, can I just say no? Because he [Trump] just got an order from the Supreme Court and he just said NO!” said a very perturbed gentleman in the crowd of about 100 at a packed town hall meeting in Fort Madison, Iowa.

He was referring to the Supreme Court order that the Trump administration “facilitate” the return to the U.S. of Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a notorious El Salvador prison in error.

Now the Trump administration claims it can’t get him back, and apparently hasn’t even tried, despite the order, and even though it’s paying El Salvador $6 million to imprison Abrego Garcia and others shipped out of the U.S.

“Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?” another man shouted to applause from the crowd at the Grassley town hall.

“The president doesn’t care,” still another said. “He’s got an order from the Supreme Court and he’s just said: ‘No, screw it!’”

“Why won’t you do your job, Senator?” one voter shouted.

“We would like to know what you, as the people, the Congress, who are supposed to rein in this dictator, what are you going to do about it?” one man asked Grassley. “These people have been sentenced to life in prison in a foreign country with no due process.”
Federal Judge James Boasberg said he’d found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for showing “a willful disregard” toward his March 15 orders requiring it return to the U.S. the hundreds of Venezuelan migrants it sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador using an 18th-century wartime law. Marc Elias explains what happens now.
Story by Giulia Carbonaro

The deepening of President Donald Trump's trade war with China could push the country—the second-largest holder of U.S. debt—to dump its Treasury holdings, sending mortgage rates skyrocketing for millions of Americans.

While some experts believe that such an escalation is unlikely to happen, China's President Xi Jinping has promised to "fight" the Trump administration's escalation of tariffs "to the end"—and there is a chance he might do so through a very dangerous weapon the country has in its arsenal: more than $760 billion in holdings in U.S. Treasury securities.

Why It Matters
While backing away from other levies on individual countries beyond the 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the United States announced earlier this month, Trump has imposed 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. China has retaliated with its own 125 percent tariffs on imported American goods.

As tensions grow between the two nations over a budding trade war that has no apparent easy way out, some experts have raised concerns that Beijing may be better equipped to withstand the negative economic shocks caused by the tariffs—and may even be willing to use its Treasury holdings to strike back at Washington and weaken its opponent.
Opinion by John Chrastka, Marilyn Jackson, and Celina Stewart

Imagine walking into your local library to check out a book and finding the shelves stripped bare. Imagine taking your child to a museum, only to find all programs have been cancelled and the doors are locked. Imagine living in a rural community where there is no high school and the only accessible education is provided by a local museum that is now closed, or your only access to the internet is a library that's now shuttered by political decree. Imagine trying to teach a classroom about civil rights, women's contributions to science, or the Holocaust—only to be told those stories are "divisive" and banned.

This is no longer hypothetical. It's the path we're on right now.

Recent executive orders issued by the Trump administration—one misleadingly titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" and another that guts the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) among other federal agencies—are not just orders on paper.

They are acts of erasure—coordinated, sneaky attempts to cherry-pick our shared stories and decide who matters, censor our classrooms, and strip our communities of the places we go to learn, to connect, and to remember. They are a direct attack on our democracy and our future. They are an insult to the American people who love their museums and libraries, and should decide for themselves what they want to learn.
Story by PRC

Beijing has responded tit for tat in Donald Trump's trade war. In reaction to the steep tariffs, numerous restrictions, and additional fees, China has halted imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States.

The import of American LNG to China has been completely halted for over 10 weeks, according to shipping data reported on Friday by the "Financial Times."

Analytics firm Kpler, which monitors shipping data, has confirmed that no cargoes from the U.S. are currently being received in China. As assessed by "Bloomberg," this pause marks the longest break in five years.
Russian newspapers laud Trump for aligning US policy with Moscow, undermining NATO unity
Story by Conor Wilson, Hannah Broughton

According to a renowned Russian scholar, former President Donald Trump emerges as a "Soviet leaders' dream" due to his policies towards Ukraine since assuming office. As reported in the Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty I Fakty and translated by BBC Russia Editor Steven Rosenberg, the scholar compliments Trump for "driving a wedge" between the US and "the European part of NATO".

Following Vladimir Putin's unauthorized annexation of Ukraine in 2022, Russia found itself isolated internationally. Nonetheless, under Trump's lead, the US stance towards Russia has mellowed, highlighted by phone conversations between Trump and Putin and meetings of high-ranking officials from both nations in neutral territories.

Concurrently, America adopted a stringent approach toward Ukraine, briefly halting military support and intelligence sharing, while pushing the Ukrainian government to end the conflict, which implied potentially ceding land.

Moreover, Trump's rhetoric has often mirrored that of Moscow; he branded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" and blamed Ukraine for initiating the hostilities.
Story by Stephanie Gauthier

According to a complaint filed by the organization Whistleblower Aid, Daniel Berulis, a former computer specialist at the US government agency National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), recently raised the alarm about a potential serious security breach involving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and his team.

EXCLUSIVE: A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that … information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

— NPR (@npr.org) 2025-04-15T10:10:22.927Z

Berulis claims that he observed disturbing things in March 2025, when members of the DOGE team obtained extended access to the NLRB’s internal systems, allowing them to view, copy, and modify sensitive data.

According to the whistleblower, the data in question included files related to ongoing union cases, confidential testimonies, personal information about employees, and sensitive information about business owners.

According to the computer specialist, he immediately observed unusual activity on the NLRB’s computer network, including a significant increase in outgoing data volume, estimated by him to be around 10 gigabytes.
Story by Emell Derra Adolphus

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) foot soldiers paid another visit Wednesday to the federal agency where they were accused of causing a “significant cybersecurity breach.”

A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made the accusation in an explosive NPR report Tuesday, offering evidence that DOGE took large amounts of data from the agency’s systems and risked a breach by foreign adversaries in the process.

Daniel Berulis, an IT staffer at the NLRB, said he first noticed the “breach” when large amounts of data left the agency’s systems after DOGE staffers—who insisted that their actions not be tracked—gained access. He also claimed to have observed suspicious log-in attempts from an IP address in Russia using DOGE’s new accounts.

A source told Forbes that representatives with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Wednesday for a two-hour meeting with leadership.

The topic of the meeting and the identities of the DOGE staffers involved remain unclear.
Story by Liam Archacki

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) goons at the Social Security Administration were forced to resurrect dozens of immigrants from the dead over the past week.

Elon Musk’s engineers had carried out a scheme to falsely list more than 6,000 immigrants as dead in a Social Security database known as the “death master file,” The Washington Post reported last week. Entry into the file cuts a person off from key financial services, such as receiving benefits and accessing a bank account.

As part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, the goal was to pressure the migrants to “self deport,” The New York Times reported.

Now, almost three dozen of the immigrants have protested the move, demonstrated that they are alive, and won a victory: They are no longer listed among the deceased, the Post reported Friday.

The immigrants, who include a Haitian refugee and a child, have shown up at Social Security offices with driver’s licenses, work orders, and letters from their states declaring them dead.
Story by thedailydigest.com

The denial
Prior to his election in November, Donald Trump categorically denied that he would be using the hard-right Heritage Foundation’s Project 25 as a blueprint for his presidency.

Not on Trump's reading list
“I have nothing to do with Project 25,” he said as Republicans maintained the blueprint was so extreme that it would jeopardize his chances at the polls. “I never read it and I never will. I’ve said 100 times, I know nothing about it.”

"Beyond my wildest dreams"
Yet the chief architect of the ultra-conservative vision for the US, Paul Dans, has told Politico that Trump’s adherence to it is “actually way beyond my wildest dreams.”

A sharp turn to the far right
Dans was pressured to resign from his post at the Heritage Foundation think tank in July last year but is still cock-a-hoop over the direction the country is taking under the Trump administration.
The court didn’t even wait to let Alito write his dissent.
By Mark Joseph Stern

Shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, the Supreme Court issued an emergency order halting the Trump administration’s reported efforts to fly Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison before they could challenge their deportation. The court’s late-night intervention is an extraordinary and highly unusual rebuke to the government, one that may well mark a turning point in the majority’s approach to this administration. For months, SCOTUS has given the government every benefit of the doubt, accepting the Justice Department’s dubious assertions and awarding Trump immense deference. On Saturday, however, a majority of justices signaled that they no longer trust the administration to comply with the law, including the court’s own rulings. If that is indeed the case, we are likely careening toward a head-on conflict between the president and the court, with foundational principles of constitutional democracy hanging in the balance.

SCOTUS’s emergency order in A.A.R.P. v. Trump arose out of the government’s unlawful efforts to ship Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. On Thursday, lawyers for these individuals told a federal court that the government was preparing to summarily deport them to El Salvador, where they would be indefinitely confined at a notorious detention center. A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas had already blocked their removal—but the government sought to evade this order by busing the migrants into the Northern District of Texas, where the restraining order would not apply. It then gave these migrants “notices,” in English only, declaring that they would be deported immediately, without stating that they could contest their deportations in court. (Officials refused to give these notices, or any other information, to the migrants’ lawyers.) The government intended to fly them out of the country within 24 hours, according to court filings.
Story by Alaa Elassar and Kristin Chapman, CNN

A national day of action against President Donald Trump and his administration has united an outpouring of protesters across the country who are rallying in defiance of what they describe as a relentless assault on democratic institutions and civil liberties.

Over 80 protests were held at state capitols, courthouses and city halls in several states as part of the “50501” demonstrations – short for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement – condemning what they describe as Trump’s executive overreach, including deportations without due process, the dismantling of federal agencies and threats to higher education.

In addition to rallies, Saturday’s day of action saw communities coming together through food drives and donation campaigns, offering support to those most affected by the administration’s policies.

“We are sending a clear and urgent message to the country and to those in power: the people are paying attention, we are organizing, and we will not accept authoritarian overreach, fascist policy, or the dismantling of our rights under the Constitution,” Sarah Parker, one of the 50501’s national coordinators, told CNN.

“The administration’s continued targeting of marginalized communities, the criminalization of dissent, and the erosion of civil liberties demand a response — and this is ours.”
By PHILIP MARCELO
Updated 5:47 PM PDT, April 19, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration took to the streets of communities large and small across the U.S. on Saturday, decrying what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals.

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.

Thomas Bassford was among the demonstrators at the reenactment of the Battles of Lexington and Concord outside Boston. The 80-year-old retired mason from Maine said he believes Americans are under attack from their own government and need to stand up against it.

“This is a very perilous time in America for liberty,” said Bassford, who was with his partner, daughter and two grandsons. “I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”
Story by Russell Payne

With tax day come and gone, the Internal Revenue Service is on track to collect less revenue this year than last. Former IRS employees blame cuts by billionaire Elon Musk and Republicans for the decline in revenue, which stands to expand the federal deficit ahead of a debt ceiling deadline this summer.

New weekly filing data from the IRS, released Friday, shows that the agency has received 1.7% fewer total tax returns compared to the same time period last year. The IRS notes a few reasons why the agency might be seeing fewer filings this year, including that multiple states are in a state of emergency and have had the tax deadline for their residents moved to May; other people may have filed for an extension as well.

However, a former IRS employee and the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Doreen Greenwald, told Salon that, in her view, the reduction in filings and income is largely due to the dramatic cuts to the agency pursued by Musk and President Donald Trump.

“What we've seen is DOGE going to federal agencies across the board, them removing federal employees — federal employees who are trained and skilled in the work that they do to deliver for programs for the American people, they think,” Greenwald said. “Federal employees are an efficient way of doing business. So when you invest in a federal employee, let's say you invest $1 on average, the return is $8 back. If you invest in an auditor that does the complex audits, you see $12 back.”
Story by Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, the New York Times reported on Sunday, raising more questions about his use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly-sensitive security details.

Hegseth allegedly shared the same details of the attack that were revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in a separate chat on the Signal app by mistake, in an embarrassing incident involving all of President Donald Trump's most senior national security officials.

The Times, citing four sources familiar with the message group, said that second chat included details of the schedule of the air strikes.
By Liz Lee and Laurie Chen

BEIJING, April 21 (Reuters) - China on Monday accused Washington of abusing tariffs and warned countries against striking a broader economic deal with the United States at its expense, ratcheting up its rhetoric in a spiralling trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

Beijing will firmly oppose any party striking a deal at China's expense and "will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner," its Commerce Ministry said.

The ministry was responding to a Bloomberg report, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration is preparing to pressure nations seeking tariff reductions or exemptions from the U.S. to curb trade with China, including imposing monetary sanctions.

President Donald Trump paused the sweeping tariffs he announced on dozens of countries on April 2 except those on China, singling out the world's second largest economy for the biggest levies.

In a series of moves, Washington has raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%, prompting Beijing to slap retaliatory duties of 125% on U.S. goods, effectively erecting trade embargoes against each other. Last week, China signalled that its own across-the-board rates would not rise further.
Story by STAN CHOE

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are tumbling Monday as worries about President Donald Trump’s trade war and his criticism of the Federal Reserve cause investors pull further from the United States.

The S&P 500 was 2.1% lower in morning trading and nearly 16% below its record set two months ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 726 points, or 1.9%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, while losses for Tesla and other Big Tech stocks had the Nasdaq composite down a market-leading 2.6%.

Perhaps more worryingly, the value of the U.S. dollar also sank as a retreat continues from U.S. markets. It’s an unusual move because the dollar has historically strengthened during past episodes of nervousness. But this time around, it’s policies directly from Washington that are causing the fear and potentially weakening the dollar's reputation as a pillar of the global economy and one of the safest possible investments.

Trump continued his tough talk on global trade over the weekend, even as economists and investors continue to say his stiff proposed tariffs could cause a recession if they’re not rolled back. U.S. talks last week with Japan have so far failed to reach a deal that could lower tariffs and help protect the economy, and they're seen as a “test case,” according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

“The golden rule of negotiating and success: He who has the gold makes the rules,” Trump said in all capitalized letters on his Truth Social Network over the weekend. He also said that “the businessmen who criticize tariffs are bad at business, but really bad at politics,” likewise in all caps.
Story by JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Officials serving both under former US President Joe Biden and US President Donald Trump erroneously publicized classified information to thousands of federal employees, The Washington Post reported on Monday, after viewing internal documents.

The information was shared in a Google Drive folder by General Services Administration (GSA) employees with the whole GSA workforce, according to the report.

Among the data made privy to the over 11,200 staff were potentially confidential White House floor plans and particulars for a proposed armored door for the White House visitor center.

The information breach triggered a cybersecurity incident report and investigation, according to the report.

This comes amid several security breaches within the Trump administration.
Story by John Bowden

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reported that her handbag was stolen over the weekend, including her personal security badge for DHS facilities.

Noem, in charge of a federal agency that oversees America’s border security as well as other sensitive matters including counterterrorism efforts, also lost her apartment keys, more than $3,000 in cash, and a number of blank checks to the thief, according to CNN. A number of less-expensive other personal items were also in the bag at at the time, the network reported Monday. Her driver’s license and passport were stolen as well.

According to CNN, an unknown white male was seen taking the bag. Secret Service agents are investigating the incident by reviewing security footage from the downtown Washington D.C. restaurant where Noem dined Sunday evening. It wasn’t immediately clear if Noem was at the table at the time the bag was snatched.
Opinion by Alex Henderson

On Saturday, April 19, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling that orders the Trump Administration to temporarily cease the deportations of Venezuelan nationals using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The two dissenters were far-right GOP-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

The ruling comes at a time when human rights activists are decrying the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland legally and is now being held in a Salvadoran prison. President Donald Trump and his allies are claiming that García was a member of the MS-13 gang, but García's defenders and relatives maintain that there is no evidence linking him to MS-13 and stress that he was never charged with anything.

Human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack analyzes the High Court's ruling in an article published by Salon on April 21, arguing that it is "too little too late" — especially in light of the Court's 2024 decision in Trump v. the United States, which said that U.S. presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for "official" acts committed in office but not for unofficial acts.
The Venezuelan man does not appear on a list of people sent to a prison in El Salvador, and his family and friends have no idea of his whereabouts.
By Miriam Jordan

In late January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan immigrant working in a delivery job in Detroit, picked up an order at a McDonald’s. He was heading to the address when he erroneously turned onto the Ambassador Bridge, which leads to Canada. It is a common mistake even for those who live in the Michigan border city. But for Mr. Prada, 32, it proved fateful.

The U.S. authorities took Mr. Prada into custody when he attempted to re-enter the country; he was put in detention and ordered deported. On March 15, he told a friend in Chicago that he was among a number of detainees housed in Texas who expected to be repatriated to Venezuela.

That evening, the Trump administration flew three planes carrying Venezuelan migrants from the Texas facility to El Salvador, where they have been ever since, locked up in a maximum-security prison and denied contact with the outside world.

But Mr. Prada has not been heard from or seen. He is not on the list of 238 people who were deported to El Salvador that day. He does not appear in the photos and videos released by the authorities of shackled men with shaved heads.
Story by Matias Civita

MAGA commentator Tim Pool was granted the first question at the White House press briefing on Tuesday, April 22—an unusual move that has drawn intense scrutiny due to his past affiliation with Tenet Media, a company allegedly tied to covert Russian funding. Pool's prominent appearance at the briefing reignited debates over Kremlin influence in U.S. media and politics, especially given a 2024 Department of Justice indictment accusing Tenet Media of acting as a Russian propaganda front.
Story by Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY

President Donald Trump has high aspirations for his tariffs, going so far as to suggest increased taxes on imports could replace income taxes.

"There's a real chance," he told Fox Noticias on April 15. "There is a chance that the money from tariffs could be so great that it would replace (the income tax).”

The idea may sound appealing, but economists who spoke to USA TODAY say Trump's tariffs would struggle to raise enough money to eliminate income taxes in full.

"A full replacement is absolutely, mechanically impossible. The math just doesn't work,” said Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, a center-right think tank.

Can tariffs replace income taxes? How much revenue would tariffs generate?
Consumers face an overall average effective tariff rate of 28%, the highest since 1901, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Estimates for how much money these tariffs will bring in vary. Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, said they could bring in as much as $6 trillion over the next 10 years, or roughly $600 billion per year. The Yale Budget Lab said the tariffs would bring in less than half that, at an estimated $2.4 trillion over the next decade.
By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -FBI Director Kash Patel on Friday said federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge on obstruction charges in a message Patel posted on X and later deleted.

In the post, which Reuters saw before it was deleted, Patel said there was evidence of the judge "obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week."
"They marked them as dead."

Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency is cutting off Americans from the Social Security benefits they're supposed to be receiving by writing them off as dead — even though they're very much among the living, the Daily Beast reports.

"We have people who did not receive benefits come in every day with their ID and say, 'I'm not dead, I'm alive!" Rennie Glasgow, a claims technical analyst and fifteen-year veteran of the Social Security Administration who works at the agency's office in Schenectady, New York, told the Beast.

These clerical zombies are the collateral damage of DOGE's meddling with the SSA's "Death Master File," a comprehensive list of deceased individuals who should no longer receive benefits. Musk, who has called Social Security the "biggest ponzi scheme of all time" and has spread outrageous claims of mass benefits fraud, ordered millions of people who were "probably" dead to be moved to the list, the Washington Post reported, in order to make it more accurate.

"[DOGE staffers] went into the system and they killed off people," Glasgow told the Beast. "About four million people, they marked them as dead. But they're not sure if those people were supposed to be marked as dead, so they're sending us an email saying, 'If these people come into the office with their identification, you can reinstate them.'"
By BEN SHIMKUS, CONSUMER REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Subaru, which sold 68,043 cars in Canada in 2024, is reshuffling its supply chain in response to escalating car trade scuffles.

The company sold over 17,700 American-built vehicles in Canada last year, making up 26 percent of its 2024 sales.

But the Japanese automaker’s Canadian division will slash US imports to just 10 percent by the 2026 model year, representing thousands of cars and millions of dollars lost.

The biggest impact will be on the American-built Outback. The popular car will no longer ship north after 2026.

Instead, it will feature a 'made in Japan' badge.

Subaru Canada's CEO, Tomohiro Kubota, said the move will 'minimize the impact of the counter surtax,' according to Automotive News Canada.
Story by Madeline Sherratt

ICE agents did not have a warrant when they detained Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, court documents have said.

Khalil, 30, was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-eight-month-pregnant wife in New York City on March 8. He was transferred to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, almost 1,300 miles away. There have been international calls for his release since then, with Khalil even denied the right to attend the birth of his child on April 21.

But amid ongoing backlash the Department of Homeland Security is now arguing a warrant was not needed before the arrest, alleging Khalil was a “flight risk” in claims his supporters branded ‘absurd’.

“Khalil was encountered by ICE officers and identified as a removable alien,” a DHS spokesperson said. “When he tried to walk away, he was arrested.

“An administrative arrest warrant was executed at the time of his booking, as is the custom. Khalil is arguing in immigration court that an arrest warrant is necessary prior to the arrest of a removable alien. There's no legal basis for that position.”

Khalil’s arrest in March was prompted by his involvement in a series of protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. On the night of his arrest, ICE agents said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa.

In a document filed in Newark federal court, a lawyer for the DHS said agents conducting surveillance of Khalil were notified he could be removed from the country ‘because his presence or activities would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States’.
Story by Victor Tangermann

Billionaire Elon Musk's effort to rid the government of purported "waste and fraud" has been a dismal failure.

With his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the richest man in the world has done little to actually save money, cutting his ambitions from an originally promised $2 trillion in savings to a mere $150 billion earlier this month — a figure that remains highly untrustworthy.

Worse yet, Musk's DOGE could actually be costing the government far more than it saves — an astronomical waste of taxpayer money that's resulted in immense and needless pain and suffering.

As the New York Times reports, mass firing and then re-hiring thousands of public sector workers could cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year alone. And the Internal Revenue Service, which has lost thousands of its employees due to the cuts, is expected to collect a staggering $500 billion less this year following the bloodletting, a loss that dwarfs Musk's limited savings.

That's in addition to the mountain of lawsuits and appeals Musk's indiscriminate gutting of agencies has triggered. According to the NYT, 30 out of the roughly 200 lawsuits related to the Trump administration's agenda implicate DOGE.

"Not only is Musk vastly overinflating the money he has saved, he is not accounting for the exponentially larger waste that he is creating," nonprofit Partnership for Public Service chief executive Max Stier told the newspaper. "He’s inflicted these costs on the American people, who will pay them for many years to come."
Story by Harry Thompson

Donald Trump's former communications director Anthony Scaramucci has issued a stark warning as he fears the president could declare martial law. Speaking to Saxo on behalf of the Daily Star, Scaramucci suggested that Trump might declare martial law to cling to power if he runs for a second term.

Despite his short stint in the administration, which ended after he criticized cabinet members, Scaramucci has since become an outspoken critic of Trump.

He acknowledged it wasn't likely but couldn't dismiss the "worst case" scenario based on Trump's past actions: Trump attempting to maintain control by disrupting the democratic process. This speculation has been fueled by the emergence of Trump 2028 caps online.

Now a broadcaster and host of The Rest is Politics US, as well as a former Goldman Sachs executive, Scaramucci elaborated on his concerns: "The worst case scenario [is] he declares martial law, he creates enough havoc in the country, economic destabilisation, and he declares martial law and he cancels an election. That would be the worst case."
Story by Jai Hamid

China told the White House on Friday to quit spreading lies about trade negotiations. The Chinese foreign ministry said there are no talks happening, no meetings planned, and no communication underway with the US on tariffs.

This came after President Donald Trump told reporters that the two countries were having discussions. Beijing called that false and told him to stop confusing the public.

According to Reuters, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a press briefing that “The United States and China are not engaged in consultations or talks on the tariff issue.” Guo also said he didn’t know anything about whether China might exempt some American imports from tariffs.

Beijing says talks don’t exist and tells US to stop misleading people
Guo’s comments weren’t the only ones. Commerce ministry spokesperson He Yadong also said nothing was happening.

“At present there are absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the US,” he told reporters in Mandarin. He also said that any statements about progress should be dismissed.

“If the US really wants to resolve the problem, it should cancel all the unilateral measures on China,” he added. The US tariffs on Chinese goods now stand at 145%. In response, China has put a 125% tariff on American imports. These numbers weren’t just announced overnight.
When all the cost and the lost in productivity are added up it will end up costing tax payers more than he saved.

Story by Aimee Picchi

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, says it has saved $160 billion through its push to root out wasteful or fraudulent government spending. But that effort may also have come at a cost for taxpayers, with a new analysis from a nonpartisan research and advocacy group estimating that DOGE's actions will cost $135 billion this fiscal year.

The analysis seeks to tally the costs associated with putting tens of thousands of federal employees on paid leave, re-hiring mistakenly fired workers and lost productivity, according to the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on the federal workforce.

PSP's estimate is based on the $270 billion in annual compensation costs for the federal workforce, calculating the impact of DOGE's actions, from paid leave to productivity hits. The $135 billion cost to taxpayers doesn't include the expense of defending multiple lawsuits challenging DOGE's actions, nor the impact of estimated lost tax collections due to staff cuts at the IRS.
This is some BS. Anti-DEI is a racist attack on black and brown people and woman.

Story by Sharelle Burt

The Trump administration has initiated the return of exhibits from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to their original owners, including the original 1960 Woolworth's lunch counter, according to Black Press USA.

The exhibit features sections of the original lunch counter where the sit-in protests began in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Feb. 1, 1960, with four students from North Carolina A&T State University: Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Joseph McNeil. The HBCU students were attacked after sitting at the whites-only section and being denied service. North Carolina Democratic Congresswoman and A&T alum Alma Adams said Trump can take the exhibits down, but the people will never forget. "This president is a master of distraction and is destroying what it took 250 years to build. Here's another distraction in his quest for attention. Another failure of his first 100 days," she said.

"We are long past the time when you can erase history-anyone's history. You can take down exhibits, close buildings, shut down websites, ban books, and attempt to alter history, but we are long past that point. We will never forget!"

Trump attacked the museum, often referred to as the "Blacksonian," after signing an executive order targeting the nation's parks and museums.

“Museums in our nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn, not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history," he said, according to USA Today.  
Story by Jasper Ward / Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration appeared to have deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen “with no meaningful process,” a federal judge said on Friday, as the child’s father sought to have her returned to the United States.

U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty said the girl, who was referred to as “V.M.L.” in court documents, was deported with her mother.

“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen,” Doughty said.

He scheduled a hearing for May 19 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”

V.M.L. was apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday with her mother, Jenny Carolina Lopez Villela, and older sister when Villela attended a routine appointment at its New Orleans office, according to a filing by Trish Mack, who said the infant’s father asked her to act as the child’s custodian.

According to Mack, when V.M.L.’s father briefly spoke to Villela, he could hear her and the children crying. During that time, according to a court document, he reminded her that their daughter was a U.S. citizen “and could not be deported.”
Story by Charisma Madarang

As part of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, three U.S. citizen children were deported with their mothers by the New Orleans Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday morning. One of the children was undergoing cancer treatment and one of the mothers is pregnant.

Both families had lived in the country for years and had ties to their communities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana, which warns that the circumstances of their sudden deportations raises grave due process concerns. The civil rights organization says that the first family was detained on Tuesday and the second family on Thursday, and that one of the mothers was given less than one minute on the phone before the call was abruptly dropped, after her spouse attempted to provide a phone number to legal counsel.
Story by Jake Brigstock

Elon Musk recently announced he will be "significantly" reducing the time he's spending leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) starting next month after it was confirmed Tesla's profit and sales nosedived at the start of 2025.

But what state is DOGE currently in and are the cuts in spending actually costing US taxpayers more than what the department is saving?

DOGE has a savings page on its website, updating weekly to show how much the department is saying it has saved.

The website was last updated on April 20 and claims to have so far saved a total of $160bn and each US taxpayer nearly $1,000, at the time of writing on April 26.

This is a "combination of asset sales, contract / lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings and workforce reductions".

However while DOGE said it is "working to upload all of our receipts in a digestible and transparent manner consistent with applicable rules and regulations", a breakdown of just 30 per cent of savings is currently detailed.

A CBS News investigation previously found some of this accounting has already been "overstated by billions of dollars" and a separate recent BBC News investigation has called into question figures from some of the receipts that have been uploaded so far.
Story by Travis Gettys

President Donald Trump admitted he was enjoying his second presidency more than his first during a lengthy, sit-down interview.

The president agreed to an interview with The Atlantic, whose editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently involved in a war planning group chat that has plunged the administration into scandal. But correspondents Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer found him eager to strike a bargain with them.

"As ever, Trump was on the hunt for a deal," they wrote. "If he liked the story we wrote, he said, he might even speak with us again."

“'Tell the people at The Atlantic, if they’d write good stories and truthful stories, the magazine would be hot,'" he said, according to the reporters.

The correspondents had been hearing for weeks, both inside and outside the White House, that Trump was having more fun this time around.
Story by Corbin Bolies

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested the Trump administration would consider arresting high-ranking judges—including Supreme Court justices—at a press briefing Monday.

“As you guys look at other judges, would you ever arrest somebody higher up on the judicial food chain, like a federal judge or even a Supreme Court justice?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked.

Leavitt said no judge is safe from the administration’s crackdown on the judiciary.

“Anyone who is breaking the law or obstructing federal law enforcement officials is putting themselves at risk of being prosecuted, absolutely,” she said.

But, calling the question a “hypothetical,” Leavitt said it was ultimately up to the Department of Justice to make calls on which judges to go after.

“I’d refer you to the DOJ for individuals they are looking at,” she added.
Story by Miranda Nazzaro

Tech billionaire Elon Musk and his numerous companies could avoid more than $2.37 billion in potential legal liability as a result of his influential role in the federal government, a new Senate report alleges.

The report, published Monday by the Democratic staff for the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, found Musk and his companies faced at least 65 “actual or potential” actions from 11 federal agencies and at least $2.37 billion in potential liability as of Inauguration Day.

“The nature of Mr. Musk’s businesses, as well as their substantial earnings from government contracts, mean that he is deeply entangled in the regulatory functions of the government he is now empowered to shape,” the report stated. “President Trump could not have chosen a person more prone to conflicts of interest.”
Story by Josh Fiallo

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has infiltrated two confidential computer networks used to transmit nuclear weapons secrets and other sensitive information, NPR reported.

Engineering wunderkind Luke Farritor, 23, and Miami-based venture capitalist Adam Ramada—both of whom work for DOGE—have had accounts on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Enterprise Secure Network (ESN) for at least two weeks, the public radio network reported Monday.

ESN is “responsible for transmitting restricted data about America’s nuclear weapons designs and the special nuclear materials used.” The NNSA uses the network to transmit technical information from nuclear laboratories to production facilities that store, maintain, and upgrade the country’s nuclear arsenal. Such communication must be sent and received in secure rooms, however, which are not accessible to most users who have accounts on the network.

They also reportedly have had access to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network for at least two weeks, which the Department of Defense uses to communicate with the Department of Energy about nuclear weapons.
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