The Conversation -- April 4, 2025

If you're looking for a nice family activity to participate in Saturday, get started at this HandsOff! page, which will guide you to protest events in your area. (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Heather Cox Richardson: “Today, before the stock market opened, Trump posted on his social media site: 'THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!'... Trump justified the tariffs by declaring that the U.S. is in the midst of a national emergency, but this afternoon he left the White House for a long weekend in Florida, where his private Doral resort outside of Miami is holding the first domestic golf tournament of the season of LIV Golf, which is financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Trump’s tariffs are not an economic policy. Tariffs are generally imposed on products, not on nations.... While Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS, 'You’re going to see employment leaping starting today,' in fact, both automaker Stellantis and appliance manufacturer Whirlpool announced layoffs because of the tariffs. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo points out that building and establishing a new plant in the U.S. will take a minimum of three to five years even if investors are inclined to support one, but Victoria Guida reported in Politico that corporate executives are saying they cannot invest in manufacturing until they can project costs, and Trump is far too unpredictable to enable them to do that with any confidence....”

     ~~~ Marie: Do read on. Richardson covers quite a few important points, the most salient, IMO, is this: "Ending systems of global free trade dovetails with the idea of getting rid of the international rules-based order created after World War II." That "rules-based order" "provide[s] ways in which countries could protect their sovereignty and work out their differences without going to war." Emphasis mine. (As for that golf outing with the Saudis ~~~

     ~~~ Erik De La Garza of the Raw Story: “... Donald Trump created an uproar Thursday evening after reports emerged that he would skip the dignified transfer of the four U.S. soldiers who died in Lithuania for a golf event.... 'Thousands of Lithuanians lined the streets with dignity and respect to honor the four lost American soldiers,' Matt McDermott posted on X. 'Trump prioritized golf over their dignified transfer.'”) ~~~

~~~ ⭐ Jonathan Last of the Bulwark takes an intensely bleak view of U.S. prospects: "It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order. He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement. He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters. He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.... Half of the electorate — the 77 million people who voted for Trump — as either fundamentally unserious, decadent, or weak. And no empire can survive the degeneration of its people.... There is no going back....

~We have a deeply stupid government — from our economically illiterate president to our craven and foolish secretary of state, from the freelancing billionaire dilettante who is gutting American soft power to the vaccine-denying health secretary who is firing as much talent as he can. From the senior economics advisor who thinks comic books are good investments, to the senators who voted to confirm this cabinet of hacks, to the representatives who stumble over themselves justifying each new inane MAGA pronouncement. But also, we have the government we deserve."

Brian Evans, et al., of CNBC: "Stocks plummeted Thursday, sending the S&P 500 back into correction territory for its biggest one-day loss since 2020, after ... Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs, raising the risk of a global trade war that plunges the economy into a recession. The broad market index dropped 4.84% and settled at 5,396.52, posting its worst day since June 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Tumbled 1,679.39 points, or 3.98%, to close at 40,545.93 and mark its worst session since June 2020. The Nasdaq Composite  plummeted 5.97% and ended at 16,550.61, registering its biggest decline since March 2020. The slide across equities was broad, with more than 400 of the S&P 500′s constituents posting losses. Thursday’s moves sent the S&P 500 to its lowest level since before Trump’s election win in November. The benchmark now sits about 12% from its record close touched in February. Shares of multinational companies tumbled." (Also linked yesterday.)

Christian Shepherd, et al., of the Washington Post: “China said Friday that it will impose a 34 percent tariff on U.S. goods, matching levies targeting China by ... Donald Trump that Beijing called 'inconsistent with international trade rules.' The announcement was made by China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, which also condemned 'unilateral bullying' by the United States in a statement. China’s Ministry of Commerce also announced a slew of non-tariff measures Friday, including the suspension of export licenses for 16 U.S. firms over allegations of products having military applications, and adding 11 companies to its 'unreliable entities list.'... China’s measures came as stock markets in Asia and Europe fell sharply Friday....” Politico's story is here.

John Tasker of CBC News: "Liberal Leader [MB: and Prime Minister] Mark Carney said Thursday ... Donald Trump's move to levy tariffs on virtually every country will 'rupture the global economy,' torpedo economic growth and prompt devastating consequences for workers and businesses in this country and around the world. Carney said Trump's tariffs against Canadian goods are 'unjustified, unwarranted and, in our judgment, misguided,' and the country must hit back with what he called carefully calibrated and targeted countermeasures' to make it clear Canada will not stand for this sort of economic broadside. The Liberal leader said the government will levy a tariff on U.S.-made vehicles that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, to match what the Americans did to the Canadian auto industry Wednesday."

Max Boot of the Washington Post: “... assuming that Americans continue to buy as many imports as they did last year, [Donald Trump's] plan would amount to an $880 billion annual tax hike that will be paid not, as Trump insists, by foreigners but by U.S. businesses and consumers. That’s 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, which would make this the largest tax increase since 1942. And that’s not even counting the cost of the likely retaliation from affected nations — or the billions lost in the stock market in response to Trump’s announcement. If Trump were trying to implement an income tax hike of similar magnitude by executive order, it would be plainly unconstitutional. Everyone knows that only Congress can set tax rates. What’s different about tariffs? On its face, nothing. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution states: 'The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.' The McKinley Tariff that Trump has said he admires was not an executive order signed by President William McKinley; it was legislation sponsored by McKinley when he was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. So, too, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — which did much to worsen the Great Depression — was passed by Congress.” Read on. Boot explains why at least one expert calls Trump's imposition of tariffs under supposed emergencies to be abuses of power. (Also linked yesterday.)

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Trump “slapped some surprisingly high tariffs on key allies — including Israel and Vietnam — while sparing nations such as Russia, Cuba and North Korea altogether.... [Also not on the list: Vatican City, Burkina Faso, Seychelles, Somalia and Belarus.] The charts [he displayed (images linked here yesterday)] listed the percentages that the countries allegedly are taxing U.S. goods next to each country and territory under the heading 'Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A.,' with the following in smaller print: 'Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers.' Trump then just charged most countries half of what they purportedly were charging us. But that’s not where the numbers appear to actually come from. As financial journalist James Surowiecki quickly figured out, the White House seems to have used a very simplistic formula: Our trade deficit with that country, divided by the country’s exports to us. That’s a measure of something, but it’s not, strictly speaking, about tariffs. It’s about a trade imbalance. The White House denied Surowiecki’s claim, pointing to a mathematical formula featuring Greek symbols. But when that formula is deconstructed, it appears as simple as he claimed.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hilarious. The White House dummkopfs think if you slap some Greek symbols onto a super-simple algebraic equation (X = A/B), it's suddenly higher mathematics that only an MIT professor can grasp.

Ben Leonard of Politico: “Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican lawmaker from the farm-heavy state of Iowa, is spearheading new legislation that would reassert Congress’ authority over tariffs amid ... Donald Trump’s trade war escalation. The measure, jointly introduced Thursday with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would limit the president’s power to impose tariffs. It would require the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of such an imposition and for Congress to explicitly approve any new tariffs within 60 days. The bill also would allow Congress to end any tariff at any time. It’s highly unlikely this proposal will ever become law. Still, support from Grassley — who chairs the Judiciary Committee, sits on the Finance Committee and is third in line for the presidency as the Senate’s president pro tempore — sends a strong signal about the GOP’s growing unease with Trump’s actions and the party’s willingness to say something about it.” ~~~

~~~ Lie Down, Roll Over, Play Dead. Katherine Tully-McManus, et al., of Politico: “Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol Hill — who could use their own votes to stop the new tariffs cold — made clear they had no intention of acting anytime soon.... In interview after interview Thursday, as the markets sunk deeper and deeper, senators made clear they would not be sticking their necks out on the issue.... One bipartisan proposal introduced Thursday by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) would limit presidential power on tariffs.... But only a handful of Senate Republicans expressed interest in that measure....” BUT ~~~

~~~ Sahil Kapur & Scott Wong of NBC News: “The fallout from ... Donald Trump's aggressive new tariffs has spurred Congress into action, with a growing number of Republicans joining Democrats to express interest in using their power to restrain him. After the GOP-led Senate delivered a rare rebuke to Trump on Wednesday by voting to undo his tariffs on Canada, lawmakers in both chambers are weighing additional steps to rein him in. Senators are eyeing other mechanisms to rescind Trump’s existing tariffs while limiting his ability to impose new ones. And Democrats in the House are exploring ways to force a vote to revoke Canadian tariffs, putting out feelers to attract support from Republicans. These efforts have a high bar for success as any resolution to undo Trump’s tariffs, or new law affecting his powers, would have to get around a presidential veto.”

This looks like a joke in which someone is supposed to ask, "How expensive ARE Easter Eggs?" But it's a real New York Times headline: "Easter Eggs Are So Expensive Americans Are Dyeing Potatoes."

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump fired six National Security Council officials after an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office with the far-right activist Laura Loomer, who laid out a list of people she believed were disloyal to the president, U.S. officials said on Thursday.... The decision came after Ms. Loomer vilified the staff members by name during the meeting on Wednesday, when she walked into the White House with a sheaf of papers attacking the character and loyalty of numerous N.S.C. officials. Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, joined later in the meeting and briefly defended some of his staff, though it was clear he had little if any power to protect their jobs. It was a remarkable spectacle: Ms. Loomer, who has floated the baseless conspiracy theory that the Sept. 11 attacks were an 'inside job' and is viewed as extreme even by some of Mr. Trump’s far-right allies, was apparently wielding more influence over the staff of the National Security Council than Mr. Waltz, who runs the agency.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “The head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command was removed from his job on Thursday, according to the top Democrats on the congressional intelligence committees. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut condemned the ouster of Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, who led both the spy agency and the military command.... A spokeswoman for Cyber Command said she could not confirm General Haugh’s removal, and referred questions to the Pentagon, which did not respond to a request for comment. A White House spokeswoman did not confirm the ouster. But a U.S. official briefed on the matter said Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and outside adviser to ... [Donald] Trump, called for General Haugh’s removal during her Oval Office meeting on Thursday. Mr. Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire General Haugh....

“'I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first — I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this administration,' Mr. Himes said.... Current and former officials said General Haugh’s deputy at the National Security Agency, Wendy Noble, was also removed from her post, and potentially reassigned to another position at the Pentagon. Current and former officials said General Haugh’s deputy at the National Security Agency, Wendy Noble, was also removed from her post, and potentially reassigned to another position at the Pentagon.... [An] official] said neither General Haugh nor Ms. Noble was told why they were being removed, only that 'your services are no longer required.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: “The firings were advocated for by far-right activist Laura Loomer during a meeting with ... Donald Trump on Wednesday, she confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday evening.... 'NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump,' Loomer said in a post on X early Friday. 'That is why they have been fired.' Loomer told The Post that she urged Trump to dismiss Haugh because he was 'handpicked' by Gen. Mark A. Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2023 when Haugh was nominated to lead Cyber Command and the NSA. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff..., Milley would have had a role in helping select the nominee for Cyber Command.... Noble was reassigned to a job within the Pentagon’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The NSA is part of the department.” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Got that? A crazy right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist who hates Muslims and says 9/11 was an "inside job" is making personnel decisions for the National Security Agency and has fired -- among others -- the head of the agency, who is a decorated four-star Air Force general. BUT ...

     ~~~ Dan Nexon in LG&$: "Frankly, the explanation being leaked — that an unhinged conspiracy theorist talked Trump into removing Haugh and Noble — is the best-case scenario. As numerous people have pointed out, this is also what we’d expect to see if Haugh and Noble refused an illegal surveillance order."

Alex Horton & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Pentagon inspector general’s office said Thursday that it will scrutinize disclosures made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth using the unclassified messaging app Signal, as he and other top Trump administration officials coordinated a highly sensitive military operation last month in Yemen, complying with a request from Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Steven A. Stebbins, the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, said in a memo to Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg that the review will 'determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business.' It also will 'review compliance with classification and records retention requirements,' Stebbins wrote.”

Like Taking Candy from a Whiney Baby. Robyn Dixon & Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has twice claimed major progress in peace talks over the war between Russia and Ukraine, with partial ceasefires on energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea, only to see all sides present wildly different interpretations on what had been agreed on as the fighting continues.... Critics contend that the U.S. negotiation team is no match for the hardened ex-Soviet officials with decades of negotiating experience and knowledge of Ukraine.... The U.S. team is not made up of experienced Russia experts, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, while Trump’s main Russia envoy, Steve Witkoff, is a property developer and friend of the president.... 'The Russians expect that Trump may be the gift that keeps on giving to Russian foreign policy goals,' said Gabuev, including 'destroying transatlantic unity, which has been [a] Russian foreign policy goal for many years, if not centuries.'”

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington said on Thursday that there was a 'fair likelihood' that the Trump administration had violated an order he issued last month to stop deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law. Speaking at a hearing, the judge, James E. Boasberg, said that he was likely to wait until next week to issue a ruling about whether the White House was in contempt of court for having ignored his order. The announcement that he would delay a final decision came after he spent nearly an hour in a remarkable interrogation of a Justice Department lawyer [Drew Ensign].... Mr. Ensign often stumbled as he tried to respond to Judge Boasberg’s inquiries. He repeatedly said that he either did not know the answers or asserted that the information was protected by attorney-client privilege.... Justice Department lawyers have repeatedly stonewalled Judge Boasberg’s efforts to query them about what administration officials knew about his order stopping the flights and when they knew it.” Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are many reasons I'm not a judge. One of them is that I would have thrown Ensign in jail right then and there to see if a nice time-out in solitary confinement would help refresh his memory as to who-all might have earned the privilege of joining him.

Kari Lake Defies Court Order. Minho Kim of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has failed to disburse congressionally approved funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the news network originally set up to counter Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, despite a judge’s order to keep it operating, according to court filings and officials at the news organization. The news group, known as RFE/RL, has not received nearly $12 million for its April funding from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the federal entity overseeing it. The unusual delay in the disbursement has forced the news organization, which relies almost exclusively on congressional funding, to furlough some of its staff and cut parts of its programming.... The U.S. Agency for Global Media also canceled satellite contracts for RFE/RL on Thursday, potentially hampering the delivery of Russian-language programs from the news outlet.... Around 40 partner stations in Europe that broadcast Radio Free Europe’s live programs in Russian rely on satellites.... Kari Lake, a Trump-appointed special adviser at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said in a statement on Thursday that the administration had not disbursed the funding in an effort to increase oversight and ensure accountability.”

Cheyenne Haslett of ABC News: "On the heels of terminating 10,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services this week, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News some programs would soon be reinstated because they were mistakenly cut.... Kennedy's comments were in response to a question about a branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that monitors lead exposure levels among children and manages prevention across the country. The program was gutted on Tuesday. 'There were some programs that were cut that are being reinstated, and I believe that that's one,' Kennedy said. Kennedy did not provide details on what other programs might be reinstated, or when.... Despite calling some program cuts a 'mistake,' Kennedy has maintained that no 'essential services' or 'frontline' jobs would be impacted by HHS's massive restructuring. That was news to Erik Svendsen, the director of the division that oversaw the CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention branch, who told ABC News in an interview that the work was completely stopped. Svendsen had not received any indication it would be reinstated or continued through another part of the CDC.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I make plenty of "mistakes" myself, but I think I'd figure out -- if I was slashing my way through the CDC -- that an office with the title "Lead Poisoning Prevention" was engaged in preventing lead-poisoning. And if had no idea whether or not lead-poisoning was a bad thing that should be, you know, prevented, I'd ask. Please don't tell us "mistakes were made." This has all been purposeful destruction of public services, most of which taxpayers anticipate will services they expect the government to provide. ~~~

     ~~~ Sophie Gardner of Politico lists some of the CDC services that Kennedy/DOGE have cut in their "restructuring" effort.

Anemona Hartocollis, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration intends to block $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University, expanding its campaign to hold universities accountable for what it says is relentless antisemitism on campus, according to two White House officials familiar with the plans. Brown became the fifth university known to face a potentially dire loss of federal funding, leaving other universities that the administration has targeted wondering when their turn might come.”

Michael Bender & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: “The Trump administration sent Harvard a list of demands on Thursday that would have to be met to end a government review of $9 billion the school receives in federal funding.... The conditions largely follow the playbook the Trump administration used to force Columbia University to comply with its demands last month, after canceling $400 million of that school’s federal grants and contracts. In both instances, the government asked Harvard and Columbia to impose bans, with few exemptions, on masking.... The Trump administration also pressured the universities to intensify efforts to hold student groups 'accountable,' cease admissions practices based on race, color or national origin and revamp policies on campus protests. Harvard would also be required to 'commit to full cooperation' with the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that enforces immigration policies, including deportations.” MB: I guess we can imagine what “full cooperation” with Homeland Security/ICE means.

Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times: “Cultural groups across the country have received letters informing them that their grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities were canceled, stirring fears of great harm to museums, historical sites and community projects of many kinds. Starting late Wednesday night, state humanities councils and other grant recipients began receiving emails telling them their funding was ended immediately. Instead, they were told, the agency would be 'repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda.'”

Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: “A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday that stops the Trump administration from pulling back more than $11 billion in public health funding from state and local health departments.  Judge Mary McElroy of the federal district court in Rhode Island granted a 14-day restraining order to a group of 23 states and the District of Columbia that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

Everything Old Is New Again. Jill Lepore in a New York Times op-ed: “... I was ... struck at how little of what [Elon] Musk proposes is new and by how many of his ideas about politics, governance and economics resemble those championed by his grandfather Joshua Haldeman, a cowboy, chiropractor, conspiracy theorist and amateur aviator.... Mr. Musk’s grandfather was also a flamboyant leader of the political movement known as technocracy. Leading technocrats proposed replacing democratically elected officials and civil servants — indeed, all of government — with an army of scientists and engineers under what they called a technate. Some also wanted to annex Canada and Mexico.... Under the technate, humans would no longer have names; they would have numbers.... [An] army of technocrats would eliminate most government services.... Decades ago, in the desperate, darkest moment of the Depression, technocracy seemed, briefly, poised to prevail against democracy.... The chief reason for technocracy’s failure was democracy’s success. [President Franklin] Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4 and immediately began putting the New Deal in place while calming the nation with a series of fireside chats.” MB: I've made this a gift link. Lepore points out other things about Haldeman's career that Musk has emulated. The bright side of Lepore's op-ed: maybe the Musk/Trump phenomenon will be short-lived.

Lauren Weber of the Washington Post: “The Senate confirmed Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a party line vote of 53-45 Thursday, placing him in charge of overseeing more than $1 trillion in annual spending. Cementing his turn from daytime TV star to D.C. bureaucrat, Oz leveraged his physician bona fides to waltz through the confirmation process and helm the agency that regulates health insurance for millions of Americans. The massive budget of Oz’s agency makes it a target for efforts to cut government spending. Oz dodged questions in his confirmation over whether he would oppose cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Sean Burch of the Wrap: “Another Washington Post staffer is ditching the paper over owner Jeff Bezos’ recent changes to its coverage. Eugene Robinson, the longtime political columnist, told staff on Thursday he is leaving WaPo after 45 years due to the 'significant shift' Bezos recently implemented, where the opinion section will focus on the 'two pillars' of personal liberties and free markets.” Interesting that one of the richest people in the world suffers from the Dunning-Kruger effect. No, Jeff, you're really not good at running a newspaper.

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Europe. Adam Satariano of the New York Times: “European Union regulators are preparing major penalties against Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, for breaking a landmark law to combat illicit content and disinformation.... The penalties are set to include a fine and demands for product changes.... These are expected to be announced this summer and would be the first issued under a new E.U. law intended to force social media companies to police their services.... European authorities have been weighing how large a fine to issue X as they consider the risks of further antagonizing Mr. Trump amid wider trans-Atlantic disputes over trade, tariffs and the war in Ukraine. The fine could surpass $1 billion, one person said, as regulators seek to make an example of X to deter other companies from violating the law, the Digital Services Act.... The investigation began in 2023, and regulators last year issued a preliminary ruling that X had violated the law.”

South Korea. Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: “South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office Friday, when the country’s Constitutional Court unanimously upheld a parliamentary vote to impeach him over his effort to impose martial law. The court said Yoon had undermined the authority of the National Assembly and other democratic institutions, and had 'gravely violated' his duties to the people and as commander in chief when he mobilized troops to try to seize political control of the legislature in December.... Yoon was not in court but in a statement after the resounding decision, he apologized for his 'shortcomings' and thanked the public.... The ruling was welcomed with cheers by the crowds outside the court, where those calling for Yoon’s removal were gathered, amid a heavy police presence.” The Guardian's story is here.

The Conversation -- April 3, 2025

If you're looking for a nice family activity to participate in Saturday, get started at this HandsOff! page, which will guide you to protest events in your area.

Brian Evans, et al., of CNBC: "Stocks plummeted Thursday, sending the S&P 500 back into correction territory for its biggest one-day loss since 2020, after ... Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs, raising the risk of a global trade war that plunges the economy into a recession. The broad market index dropped 4.84% and settled at 5,396.52, posting its worst day since June 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Tumbled 1,679.39 points, or 3.98%, to close at 40,545.93 and mark its worst session since June 2020. The Nasdaq Composite  plummeted 5.97% and ended at 16,550.61, registering its biggest decline since March 2020. The slide across equities was broad, with more than 400 of the S&P 500′s constituents posting losses. Thursday’s moves sent the S&P 500 to its lowest level since before Trump’s election win in November. The benchmark now sits about 12% from its record close touched in February. Shares of multinational companies tumbled."

Max Boot of the Washington Post: “... assuming that Americans continue to buy as many imports as they did last year, [Donald Trump's] plan would amount to an $880 billion annual tax hike that will be paid not, as Trump insists, by foreigners but by U.S. businesses and consumers. That’s 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, which would make this the largest tax increase since 1942. And that’s not even counting the cost of the likely retaliation from affected nations — or the billions lost in the stock market in response to Trump’s announcement. If Trump were trying to implement an income tax hike of similar magnitude by executive order, it would be plainly unconstitutional. Everyone knows that only Congress can set tax rates. What’s different about tariffs? On its face, nothing. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution states: 'The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.' The McKinley Tariff that Trump has said he admires was not an executive order signed by President William McKinley; it was legislation sponsored by McKinley when he was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. So, too, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — which did much to worsen the Great Depression — was passed by Congress.” Read on. Boot explains why at least one expert calls Trump's imposition of tariffs under supposed emergencies to be abuses of power.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump fired six National Security Council officials after an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office with the far-right activist Laura Loomer, who laid out a list of people she believed were disloyal to the president, U.S. officials said on Thursday.... The decision came after Ms. Loomer vilified the staff members by name during the meeting on Wednesday, when she walked into the White House with a sheaf of papers attacking the character and loyalty of numerous N.S.C. officials. Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, joined later in the meeting and briefly defended some of his staff, though it was clear he had little if any power to protect their jobs. It was a remarkable spectacle: Ms. Loomer, who has floated the baseless conspiracy theory that the Sept. 11 attacks were an 'inside job' and is viewed as extreme even by some of Mr. Trump’s far-right allies, was apparently wielding more influence over the staff of the National Security Council than Mr. Waltz, who runs the agency.”

Lauren Weber of the Washington Post: “The Senate confirmed Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a party line vote of 53-45 Thursday, placing him in charge of overseeing more than $1 trillion in annual spending. Cementing his turn from daytime TV star to D.C. bureaucrat, Oz leveraged his physician bona fides to waltz through the confirmation process and helm the agency that regulates health insurance for millions of Americans. The massive budget of Oz’s agency makes it a target for efforts to cut government spending. Oz dodged questions in his confirmation over whether he would oppose cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor.”

Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: “A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday that stops the Trump administration from pulling back more than $11 billion in public health funding from state and local health departments.  Judge Mary McElroy of the federal district court in Rhode Island granted a 14-day restraining order to a group of 23 states and the District of Columbia that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week.”

The top online headlines this morning are mostly like this one by the AP: "Dow drops 1,500 as US stock market leads a worldwide sell-off following Trump’s tariff shock."

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Here's the clip CNN played while waiting for Trump to come out on the lawn and announce his plan to further wreck the world's economy. Seems appropriate as it's pretty much what Trump has in store for us:

~~~ David Lynch & Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will impose a new 10 percent tariff on all imported goods along with an additional punitive import tax tailored for each of about 60 countries that his advisers say maintain the most unfair barriers against U.S. products. The president’s long-awaited tariff plan is designed to spur a renaissance in domestic manufacturing and to fill government coffers with tax revenue, even as many economists warn that he is steering the U.S. economy toward slower growth and higher prices.... After returning to the White House on a wave of public anger over inflation, Trump is now asking voters to put up with a renewed period of rising prices in return for the distant promise of rebuilding domestic manufacturing. Already, economists are warning that Trump’s tax increase on imported goods will mean sticker shock on some of Americans’ most important purchases, including groceries, cars and homes.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that when Trump & the Trumpettes boast about the Trump tariffs bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues, they are talking about collecting that money from U.S. consumers. You and me. We're going to fill federal coffers in service of tax breaks for the ultra-rich.

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC reproduces the full list of Trump's so-called "reciprocal tariffs."

Joe Rennison, et al., of the New York Times: “Markets around the world shuddered on Thursday after ... [Donald] Trump announced across-the-board 10 percent tariffs on all U.S. trading partners except Canada and Mexico, as well as even higher tariffs on dozens of America’s other main trading partners. Futures on the S&P 500, which allow investors to trade the index outside normal trading hours, slumped over 3 percent. Asian markets fell sharply, with benchmark indexes dropping more than 3 percent in Japan, and nearly 2 percent in Hong Kong and South Korea.... The initial market reaction suggested that the scale of the tariffs on Wednesday had come as a surprise, and analysts were still trying to figure out how the figures had been derived.... The administration had adjusted its estimates of the tariffs imposed on the United States to include adjustments for what it deemed currency manipulation or even other taxes, with analysts questioning the analytical basis for doing so.... The dollar slid as Mr. Trump spoke from the White House Rose Garden.” An NBC News story is here.

Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: “China is promising to retaliate against ... Donald Trump’s 'typical bullying' with unspecified countermeasures, while the European Union said it is working on its response, as allies and adversaries alike reeled Thursday from what Trump billed as a 'Liberation Day' tariffs blitz.... European political and business leaders awaking to the specifics of the tariff spikes added their shock, outrage and confusion to the global chorus.... Beneath the diplomatic restraint were anger and fears of spreading economic chaos.... The size of the tariffs stunned the United States’ allies in particular.... The [27-member] European Union, which was hit with a 20 percent blanket tariff, is ready to respond if talks with Washington fail, said the head of the E.U. executive branch, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 'There seems to be no order in the disorder. No clear path through the complexity and chaos,' she said in a statement describing the tariffs as a 'major blow.'” An AP story is here.

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: “Trump’s speech announcing a huge increase in tariffs on American trading partners was riddled with falsehoods and misleading statements on trade that he has made for years. But now they are determining policy that will increase the costs of goods for many Americans. Here’s a quick sampling, in the order in which he made them. We’re sure we missed some — and some claims still require more checking.”

RAS longs for the good old days when "people in [Trump's] first administration ... would steal papers off of FH's desk or not pass along his idiotic ideas to others to try to figure out how to implement them." Out of sight, out of mind, the guy with a memory that awed the medical profession would forget the hairbrained ideas and the world would move on, unfettered by the crazy brain farts of the day.

Rachel Pannett & Niha Masih of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday announced far-reaching tariffs on most of the United States’ trading partners. So far-reaching, in fact, that they include a remote, sub-Antarctic island group inhabited mainly by penguins — and a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean known for its polar bears.... [For instance,] Heard Island and McDonald Islands ... are unoccupied by humans and had zero trade with the U.S. last year.... The Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the Atlantic, faces tariffs of 41 percent, compared with 10 percent for Britain itself.” The reporters list quite a few odd places to impose tariffs and/or to impose tariffs different from those of the country they're part of. The Guardian's story is here. MB: No doubt this is just another screw-up of the entirely slap-dash “system” Trump used to impose the tariffs in the first place. It is not likely that the Arctic island of Jan Mayen, whose only inhabitants are 18 people operating a meteorological station and airfield, has “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” the U.S., as Trump claimed these places were doing.

Paul Krugman: “... based on what [Trump] said, he’s gone full-on crazy. It’s not just that he appears to be imposing much higher tariffs than almost anyone expected. He’s also making false claims about our trading partners — not sure in this case whether they’re lies, because he may be truly ignorant — that will both enrage them and make it very hard to back down. Basically, he’s claiming that the rest of the world is placing very high tariffs on U.S. products, and that he’s imposing 'reciprocal' tariffs that are only half what they impose on us. [For instance,] The EU, like the United States, has generally low tariffs; the average tariff it charges on US goods is less than 3 percent. So where does this 39 percent number [Trump claims the E.U. places on U.S. products] come from? I have no idea.... You have to wonder whether Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids are now producing tariff numbers. But you know that having once claimed that Europe charges tariffs more than 10 times as high as reality, Trump will never drop that claim.”

Marie: It's good to see that the WashPo also is putting "reciprocal" in quotation marks in more than one article. That is, the Post is acknowledging that the tariffs are not "reciprocating" any other nation's tariffs. ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “... financial journalist James Surowiecki figured out [where] the White House [got those numbers it claims other countries are charging the U.S. in tariffs. Someone] 'just took our trade deficit with [each] country and divided it by the country’s exports to us.' He called it 'extraordinary nonsense.' Washington Post economic writer Catherine Rampell posted that she was reluctant to amplify Surowiecki’s theory that the tariff rates were based on such a 'dumb calculation,' but then the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative confirmed it.... 'Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,' former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted. 'The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now [close] to $30 trillion or $300,000 per family of four.' 'The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,' posted former vice president Mike Pence.... Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) ... suggests [the tariffs] are a way to make private industry dependent on the president the same way he has tried to make law firms and universities dependent on him. Industries and companies 'will need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief.'... While Trump imposed tariffs on Australia’s remote Heard and McDonald Islands, which are uninhabited except by wildlife like seals and penguins, it did not put tariffs on Russia.” ~~~

Paul Krugman again: “... it may be even worse than [what James Surowiecki calculated]. The Trump formula is apparently what you get if you ask ChatGPT and other AI models to make tariff policy[.]... I speculated [earlier] that Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids might be responsible for those tariff numbers. That now looks like a distinct possibility.... [Krugman publishes the findings of a young man who plugged the question 'how to impose tariffs easily' into several AI apps and the AI answers used the same formula.] The key point is that Trump isn’t really trying to accomplish economic goals. This should all be seen as a dominance display, intended to shock and awe people and make them grovel, rather than policy in the normal sense.... How can anyone, whether they’re businesspeople or foreign governments, trust anything coming out of an administration that behaves like this?”

James Fallows on Substack: "This post is about tariffs, the latest bit of chaos through which Donald Trump is satisfying his major need, which is to dominate minute-by-minute news coverage.... This is a historically reckless moment in US economic policy. And even by Trump-era standards it’s a historically shameful moment for the Republican Party. Its leaders know that their alpha-figure is launching a dollars-and-Euros version of the Iraq war. And they stand by, grinning and clapping."

Oh, what can be done? Trump says he has his Article II that lets him do whatever he wants. Actually, no. Rachel Maddow reminded us last night that even though President Biden left Trump with an economy that the Economist called "the envy of the world," Trump immediately declared the state of the economy to be a national emergency. Bu law, the fake emergency gives the president* the power to impose tariffs. BUT. The Congress can declare the emergency over. So you'll be very surprised to learn what the Senate did last night: ~~~

~~~ Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “The Senate on Wednesday approved a measure that would block some of the tariffs ... [Donald] Trump has imposed on Canada, with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats to pass a resolution that would halt levies set to take effect this week. The measure is all but certain to stall in the House, where G.O.P. leaders have moved preemptively to shut down any move to end Mr. Trump’s tariffs. But Senate passage of the measure on a vote of 51 to 48 — just hours after Mr. Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on more than 100 trading partners, including the European Union, China, Britain and India — sent a signal of bipartisan congressional opposition to the president’s trade war.... Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone Republican sponsor of the resolution. But three other G.O.P. senators ... joined him in support: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky....

“The resolution targets the emergency powers Mr. Trump invoked in February to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada[, which he (falsely) claimed was a major source of fentanyl coming into the U.S.].... Mr. Trump imposed the tariffs in an executive order that cited the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, a Cold War-era law that has most often been used to impose sanctions on rogue states and human rights violators. Mr. Trump lobbied Republicans intensely to oppose the effort. In a series of social media posts on Tuesday, he attacked G.O.P. backers of the resolution and tried to convince them to reconsider, warning others against from breaking ranks and defying his executive order. In one post, he named the four Republican defectors and said they were 'playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels.'” Politico's story is here.

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: “Tariffs on imported vehicles took effect Thursday, a policy that ... [Donald] Trump said would spur investments and jobs in the United States but that analysts say will raise new car prices by thousands of dollars. The 25 percent duty applies to all cars assembled outside the United States. Starting May 3, the tariff will also apply to imported auto parts, which will add to the cost of cars assembled domestically as well as auto repairs. There will be a partial exemption for cars made in Mexico or Canada that meet the terms of free trade agreements with those countries. Carmakers will not have to pay duties on parts like engines, transmissions or batteries that were made in the United States and later installed in cars in Mexican or Canadian factories.”

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: “Another big law firm has reached an agreement with the Trump administration over the kind of free legal services its lawyers can provide to head off an executive order that could impair its business.... Donald J. Trump announced on Truth Social that Milbank had agreed to provide $100 million in pro bono legal services to causes supported by his administration and the law firm.... The law firm also agreed to use a merit-based system and to not engage in 'illegal D.E.I. discrimination.' It also promised not to deny representation to a client because of his or her political views. The Trump administration has focused on firms that employed lawyers involved in investigations of Mr. Trump and his prior administration, or who have hired lawyers who have been critical of the president. Milbank recently hired Neal Katyal, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump who was an acting solicitor general during the Obama administration....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Huh. I'm no lawyer, but if Goldstein's reporting is correct, this agreement doesn't sound like a cave to me. (1) Assuming that Milbank normally does $100 million in pro bono work over whatever time period the agreement may specify (no indication in the report that any timeframe is specified), then this is no big deal because the firm does not have to do any work for clients whose case it doesn't "support." (2) Not engaging in illegal employment discrimination is no concession at all. Obviously, a law firm cannot knowingly & wantonly violate employment law. (3) As for promising not to deny services to people for their political views, who knows why a firm accepts or does not accept its clients? Any number of factors can figure into the equation and "he's a frigging Nazi" isn't necessarily the deciding factor. I'll bet a big law firm has lawyers (or can hire lawyers) who are smarter than the saps who are willing to work for Donald Trump. I think maybe those saps, including the Sap-in-Chief, have been had.

Joanna Slater & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: “... during a National Governors Association event at the White House on Feb. 21..., Trump demanded that Maine comply with his executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. [Gov. Janet] Mills [D] replied that Maine would follow state and federal law. Trump threatened to cut off all funding to the state. 'See you in court,' Mills responded. Since that one-minute interaction, the small New England state has been subjected to unusual, overlapping investigations and arbitrary reversals of funding, turning it into a test case for the Trump administration’s approach to perceived adversaries. Officials in Maine have spent weeks in a state of 'whiplash and worry,' in the words of one educator, hit with probes that are unlike anything experts say they have seen. Trump’s initial clash with Mills appeared to stem from the case of a single transgender high school athlete who won a state track-and-field event. But the potential ramifications for Maine swiftly spiraled outward to encompass funding for marine research, tens of millions of dollars in Department of Agriculture grants to the University of Maine and the ability of parents to automatically apply for Social Security numbers for their newborns. Those moves were subsequently rolled back, thanks largely to the intervention of Sen. Susan Collins, the powerful Republican who represents Maine.”

Rachel Bade of Politico: “... Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role.... Musk’s looming exit comes as some Trump administration insiders and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability and increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was thrown into stark relief Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk vocally supported lost his bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by 10 points. It also represents a shift in the Trump-Musk relationship from a month ago, when White House officials and allies were predicting Musk was 'here to stay' and that Trump would find a way to blow past the 130-day time limit.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: “Elon Musk made himself the face of a humiliating political defeat in Wisconsin on Tuesday night. He’s rubbed cabinet members the wrong way and alienated several advisers close to ... [Donald] Trump. Republican lawmakers face angry questions about Mr. Musk’s influence from their constituents when they return to their districts. It will come as a relief to many in Mr. Trump’s orbit when Mr. Musk completes his 130-day service as a special government employee, which according to federal law is due to end in late May or early June. But the president has no intention of cutting ties with the world’s richest man, even after he leaves government, according to two people with knowledge of the president’s thinking. Mr. Musk has become, for better or worse, an essential component of both Mr. Trump’s political operation and the broader Republican Party apparatus. He’s the party’s moneyman, having committed $100 million to Mr. Trump’s outside groups, on top of the nearly $300 million he spent on the 2024 election. And he controls the most important media channel in G.O.P. politics — the website X ... — which makes Republicans terrified of getting on his bad side.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So Republicans are terrified of Trump, and now they're terrified of Musk, and of course that's all because they're terrified of the voters. Maybe what would save the U.S. from Trump would be to get a bunch of psychiatrists & psychologists to treat these cowering fraidycat GOP members of Congress for their anxiety disorders.

Before and After. Giselle Ewing of Politico: Elon “Musk catapulted the [Wisconsin] state Supreme Court election into national view, vocally backing conservative candidate Brad Schimel — who also clinched ... Donald Trump’s endorsement — and pouring millions into the efforts to get him elected. The Wisconsin election, Musk claimed, would decide the trajectory of not only the whole country, but perhaps all of'Western civilization' and 'the future of the world,' as he said in a Spaces conversation on X hours before polls closed Tuesday.... Musk changed his tune in the hours following the crushing defeat, seemingly indicating that the loss was all part of a bigger plan. 'I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain,' Musk replied to an X user early Wednesday morning.” MB: I wonder why Musk's friend Trump didn't much appreciate his “positional gain” in 2020? (Also linked yesterday.)

Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal. -- NSC Group Chat Participant ~~~

~~~ ⭐Dasha Burns of Politico: “National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats. Two of the people said they were in or have direct knowledge of at least 20 such chats. All four said they saw instances of sensitive information being discussed.... These latest revelations show that the NSC’s reliance on Signal is widespread and part of standard operations.... Veteran national security officials have warned the practice potentially violates regulations on protecting sensitive national security information from foreign adversaries, and federal recordkeeping laws if the chats are automatically deleted.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: “The U.S. Naval Academy has removed nearly 400 books from its library to comply with directives from the Trump administration on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a U.S. Navy spokesman said.... The military academies did not initially follow suit because leaders thought the order, given its K-12 focus, didn’t apply to them as colleges, according to a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. But after the Capital Gazette published a story saying the Naval Academy was not removing DEI materials, the academy soon received new directions from defense leaders to review its materials and remove anything that promotes DEI.... [On Tuesday,] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ... told over 4,000 of the school’s students and faculty that what he called past distractions — such as DEI measures — weakened the military.”

Marie: Ah, you thought I was a silly old alarmist when I said we all were in danger. Okay, I'm no expert. But take it from someone who's been there ~~~

~~~ American Stasi. “Our Police State Has Arrived.” M. Gessen of the New York Times: “Those of us who have lived in countries terrorized by a secret police force can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.... 'It’s the unmarked cars.'... It’s the catastrophic interruption of daily life, as when a Tufts University graduate student ... was grabbed on a suburban street by half a dozen plainclothes agents, most of them masked.... It’s the forced mass transports of immigrants.... It’s the growing irrelevance of the law and the helplessness of judges and lawyers.... It’s the chilling stories that come by word of mouth.... ICE is coming to your workplace, your street, your building.... It’s the invisible hand of the authorities.... It’s the shifting goal posts.... It’s the lists.... It’s the denunciations by concerned citizens.... And, as the historian Timothy Snyder has pointed out, if due process is routinely denied to noncitizens, it will be denied to citizens too, simply because it is often impossible for people to prove that they are citizens.... The United States has become a secret-police state. Trust me, I’ve seen it before.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Northern California ordered the restoration of legal funds for migrant children who enter the United States alone, temporarily reversing a Trump administration decision last month that had left children at risk of deportation. Nonprofit groups had been fighting the decision since they received notice from the federal government on March 21 that it would terminate funding for legal services for unaccompanied children in immigration court. The halt in funding, according to a complaint filed by the groups, had put some 26,000 children at risk of being cut off from their lawyers and disadvantaged them in adversarial immigration proceedings. The government had argued that the funding was discretionary and that it was not obligated to provide legal representation for the children. But Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco disagreed, saying on Tuesday that by terminating the funding, the government had potentially violated its obligations to protect children from human trafficking.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oddly enough, the judge saw something wrong with sending toddlers to court to fend for themselves against Trump's unscrupulous anti-immigration apparatus.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Lawyers for a Maryland man who was inadvertently deported last month to a notorious Salvadoran prison despite an order that he could remain in the United States angrily urged the judge overseeing his case on Wednesday to force the Trump administration to bring him back as soon as possible. In a court filing, the lawyers for the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, furiously took issue with almost every aspect of the case. To start, they said, Trump officials had acknowledged on Monday night that they had made an 'administrative error' by flying Mr. Abrego Garcia to El Salvador on March 15 even though a U.S. immigration judge had already determined that he might face torture there. The lawyers also expressed shock that the administration was maintaining that it had little power to get Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national whose wife and child are both American citizens, out of custody.”

Maria Sacchetti & Artur Galocha of the Washington Post: Donald Trump “praised ICE for arresting 'dangerous' immigrants [and getting them off the streets], but a Post review found many were already behind bars.... The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not dispute The Post’s findings.”

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Alongside extensive reductions to the staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Trump administration has asked the agency to cut $2.9 billion of its spending on contracts, according to three federal officials with knowledge of the matter. The administration’s cost-cutting program, called the Department of Government Efficiency, asked the public health agency to sever roughly 35 percent of its spending on contracts about two weeks ago. The C.D.C. was told to comply by April 18, according to the officials. The cuts promise to further hamstring an agency already reeling from the loss of 2,400 employees, nearly one-fifth of its work force. On Tuesday, the administration fired C.D.C. scientists focused on environmental health and asthma, injuries, violence prevention, lead poisoning, smoking and climate change.

“Separately, H.H.S. last week abruptly discontinued C.D.C. grants of about $11.4 billion to states that were using [Covid-19] funds to track infectious diseases and to support mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues. At least some of the contracts may not be implemented because the people overseeing them have been dismissed.” ~~~

Apoorva Mandavilli & Roni Rabin of the New York Times: “The extensive layoffs of federal health workers that began on Tuesday will greatly curtail the scope and influence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world’s premier public health agency, an outcome long sought by conservatives critical of its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services shrinks the C.D.C. by 2,400 employees, or roughly 18 percent of its work force, and strips away some of its core functions. Some Democrats in Congress described the reorganization throughout H.H.S. as flatly illegal. 'You cannot decimate and restructure H.H.S. without Congress,' said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and a member of the Senate health committee. 'This is not only unlawful but seriously harmful — they are putting Americans’ health and well-being on the line,' she added....

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, said last week the layoffs would affect primarily administrative functions. But according to information gathered by The New York Times..., the reductions were more broadly targeted. Scientists focused on environmental health and asthma, injuries, lead poisoning, smoking and climate change were dismissed. Researchers studying blood disorders, violence prevention and access to vaccines were let go. The agency’s center on H.I.V. and sexually transmitted diseases was among the hardest hit, losing about 27 percent of its staff. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which makes recommendations on how to keep workers safe, was all but dissolved. What remains is a hobbled C.D.C., with a smaller global footprint, devoting fewer resources to environmental health, occupational health and disease prevention, public health experts said.”

     ~~~ Marie: A paramount reason one does not task Elon Musk & his teenaged-boy fan club with controlling government spending is that these people are so arrogant and stupid that they think they're invincible. They are sure they will never need medical attention -- and they don't give a rat's ass for the poor, weak people who -- unlike them -- do seek medical help.

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services in February, he promised 'radical transparency' and declared that 'both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information.' But when the Trump administration laid off thousands of employees on Tuesday, the targets included the very people who communicated the health department’s work to Americans. Some of those employees were press officers, but many worked behind the scenes — on social media, newsletters, information campaigns and personal outreach — to translate complicated scientific studies into accessible guidance and to ensure that the recommendations and cutting-edge research produced in the department’s dozens of offices reached the people who needed them.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Read a couple of articles in the New York Times, and you might think RFKJ is a liar.

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said he plans to nominate D.C. defense attorney Stanley Woodward for associate attorney general, which is the third-highest position at the Justice Department and oversees its civil rights, environmental and civil divisions. Woodward is the latest example of Trump’s tapping for powerful jobs lawyers who defended him and his allies in criminal cases during the Biden administration. If Woodward is confirmed, the top three people at the Justice Department will have personally represented Trump in some capacity over the past six years. Woodward worked in private practice during Trump’s first term and rose to prominence when he represented Trump co-defendant and personal aide Walt 'Waltine' Nauta in the classified documents case....” MB: It definitely is not the DOJ anymore. It's the DODD: Department of Donald's Defense.

Court Validates (and Upgrades) Adams' Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: “A judge on Wednesday dismissed corruption charges against Eric Adams, ending the first criminal case against a New York City mayor in modern history and underscoring how ... [Donald] Trump’s Justice Department is using prosecutorial power to advance his agenda. The judge, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, refused to let the government retain the option of reinstating the charges, as Mr. Trump’s Justice Department had sought. The department had argued that the bribery and fraud charges should be dropped for three reasons: They were brought too close to the mayoral election; the U.S. attorney who brought the case had created 'appearances of impropriety'; and, most importantly, the prosecution was hindering the mayor’s cooperation with Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. Judge Ho roundly rejected all three arguments. 'Everything here smacks of a bargain: Dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,' the judge wrote in his 78-page decision....

“Judge Ho in his opinion discounted the Justice Department’s claims that the case had been brought for political reasons by the Manhattan federal prosecutors. 'There is no evidence — zero — that they had any improper motives,' he wrote.... The judge said that granting the government’s request to dismiss the charges without prejudice, which would have allowed it to bring them again, 'would create the unavoidable perception that the mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents.'” (Also linked yesterday.) More on Adams linked below under "New York."

Lisa Friedman & Claire Brown of the New York Times: “Over the last few months, Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made explosive accusations against the Biden administration, accusing it of 'insane' malfeasance in its handling of $20 billion in climate grants. Now, as a legal battle ensues over those funds, many of Mr. Zeldin’s claims remain unsupported, and some are flat-out false.... The $20 billion ... was awarded to eight nonprofit groups ... to finance projects ... such as solar panels on community centers and geothermal systems to heat and cool subsidized housing.... The [E.P.A.], which has worked to block the nonprofits from accessing the money, is now being sued by several of the organizations for breach of contract.... In its most recent court filing on March 26, the E.P.A. offered another argument for canceling the grants, claiming the climate funds no longer align with the Trump administration’s priorities.” The article cites a number of bizarre false claims Zeldin has made, including one dependent upon a Project Veritas video. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The truth seems to be, not surprisingly, that Zeldin will do & say anything to keep the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. Remember, the purpose the the Trump administration is to render government agencies dysfunctional. This is the way of tyrants: they rob everything of meaning, leaving the public confused and disheartened. So Trump names his derivative media platform "Truth Social," a name in which both words connote the opposite of its owner, a lying narcissisist. He calls the best efforts to report the real news "fake news." Honorable attempts to bring him to justice are "hoaxes." He and his goons destabilize and frighten lonely, elderly people by threatening "Social Security." "Medicare" may no longer provide "care" and "Medicaid" may no longer give "aid." By radically destroying objective truth, they reckon they can establish their own "truth"/propaganda and get away with murder (say, shooting someone on Fifth Avenue).

Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: “Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called for FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate Elon Musk’s ties to the Chinese government, arguing that the U.S. DOGE Service’s access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data poses an unacceptable conflict of interest, given Beijing’s regulatory power over the tech billionaire’s vast business operations in China.... Raskin also requested details on Musk’s and his associates’ travel to China, asking that the law enforcement agency present a report to the committee by April 15....” MB: Not. Going. To. Happen. (Also linked yesterday.)

More Trouble for Ed Martin. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: “A Senate fight over ... Donald Trump’s controversial choice for top prosecutor in Washington escalated as Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois) and all other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called for interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin to face questions under oath at a confirmation hearing, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) vowed to block attempts to jam through a vote. While the Senate Judiciary Committee does not typically hold hearings for U.S. attorney nominees, 'Mr. Martin is a nominee whose objectionable record merits heightened scrutiny by this Committee,' Durbin and nine other members wrote Tuesday to the panel’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).... Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery responded that the Judiciary Committee 'doesn’t hold hearings' on U.S. attorney or U.S. marshal nominations.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “... in their zeal to deliver ... [Donald] Trump’s domestic policy agenda in 'one big beautiful bill' of spending and tax cuts, Senate Republicans are trying to steer around the parliamentarian, busting a substantial congressional norm in the process. The strategy would allow them to avoid getting a formal thumbs up or thumbs down on their claim that extending the tax cuts that Mr. Trump signed into law in 2017 would cost nothing — a gimmick that would make it easier for them cram as many tax reductions as possible into their bill without appearing to balloon the deficit.... Rather than have [parliamentarian Elizabeth] MacDonough weigh in, they asserted that Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as chairman of the Budget Committee, could unilaterally decide the cost of the legislation, citing a 1974 budget law. Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a new budget resolution they planned to put to a vote as early as this week. And Mr. Graham declared in a statement that he considered an extension of the 2017 tax cuts to be cost-free.... The approach amounts to a rewriting of the strictly governed reconciliation process, and a backdoor way to knock down a crucial Senate guardrail on a simple majority vote — using the so-called nuclear option in a move akin to eliminating the filibuster.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is akin to GOP House leadership's ploy to get around the law that requires a vote on "privileged resolutions" (like one ending Trump's fake national emergencies) within 15 days. The "new rule," slipped into a funding bill, declares that a "day" lasted to the end of the year. That way, Bible Mike has sole control over what legislation comes up for a vote.

We are deeply concerned that the administration’s response is failing to meet both our moral and strategic objectives — sending a signal to countries around the world that our adversaries are more reliable and trustworthy than the United States. -- Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Chris Coons, et al., to Rubio & Bessent ~~~

~~~ Edward Wong of the New York Times: “Democratic senators sent a letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday criticizing what they called the paltry U.S. aid response to the earthquake in Myanmar, where China and Russia have sent rescue and relief teams. The six senators said in the letter that the United States appeared to be failing the first test of its ability to respond to a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to foreign aid and dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the main aid agency.... [The letter] was organized by the offices of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking member on the Banking Committee, and Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is on the Foreign Relations Committee. The other senators who signed were Tim Kaine of Virginia, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The senators sent it to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.” The letter linked in the story comes directly from the Senate committee, so it is not firewalled.

Adam Liptak & Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a truck driver fired for failing a drug test after using a product which was falsely advertised to be free of THC may sue the manufacturer under a federal racketeering law. In a 5-to-4 decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court sided with Douglas Horn, the driver, in a decision that could make it easier for people to sue companies under a federal racketeering statute that was originally aimed at fighting organized crime. Justice Barrett wrote that the product’s manufacturer, a company called Medical Marijuana Inc., was fighting a battle with that plain language of the racketeering law.... Justice Barrett was joined in the majority with the court’s three liberal justices, along with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. Justice Clarence Thomas filed a dissent, as did Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh who was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What? What? Gorsuch sided with a truck driver against a business??? Unpossible!

Awww! Obama photobomb. (Also linked yesterday.) 

~~~~~~~~~~

New York. Sally Goldenberg of Politico: “Mayor Eric Adams is opting out of New York City’s Democratic primary and running for reelection as an independent — embarking on narrow path as he further isolates himself from the city’s dominant political party.... In an interview [with Politico] Monday, Adams said he would “mount a real independent campaign” that relies on 'a solid base of people' outside Manhattan, with an emphasis on ethnic minorities who boosted him to victory four years ago. He lamented how the bribery charges federal prosecutors hit him with in September — which a judge dismissed Wednesday — 'handcuffed' him, and he promised to be 'uninhibited' on the campaign trail.” The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Free at Last, Free at Last. Dana Rubestein & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Hours after a federal judge granted the Trump administration’s request to dismiss the corruption charges against him, [New York City Mayor Eric] Adams suggested at a news conference in front of Gracie Mansion that Mr. Trump’s Justice Department was doing God’s will. 'Jesus stepped in and he uses who he uses,' Mr. Adams said at the news conference, seemingly referring to the Justice Department officials who moved to drop his case. 'New Yorkers stop me all the time trying to find the rationale behind this,' Mr. Adams said. 'And I found it in this book.' Then he held up a copy of 'Government Gangsters' by the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who has spread misinformation about the agency he now runs, arguing that Americans are the victims of an unbridled cabal of federal officials referred to by Mr. Patel and others as the 'deep state.' Mr. Adams turned Mr. Patel’s book so that the audience could read the title and waved it for emphasis. 'I’m going to encourage every New Yorker to read it,' he said. Read it and understand how we can never allow this to happen to another innocent American.'”

Wisconsin. Scott Cacciola of the New York Times: “In urging 'disaffected patriots' to head to the polls on Tuesday and cast ballots in Wisconsin’s election, the political advocacy group Look Ahead America relied partly on a fairly perfunctory get-out-the-vote strategy: It spammed about 250,000 residents on Monday with a text message that reminded them of the issues at stake. That text message came with a twist: It was accompanied by a provocative photo catered to the gender of the intended recipient. Men received a photo of Emily Ratajkowski — a supermodel and a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders — in a bikini, while women received a photo of a topless man cradling a puppy.... [The photo of the shirtless man] had been taken by the photographer Mike Ruiz for a calendar series that raises funds for Louie’s Legacy Animal Rescue.... 'I am disgusted that they used a beautiful philanthropic project to save animals in dire need, a project which means so much to me, to spread their propaganda,' he said in an email.” Ms. Ratajkowski did not comment.

The Conversation -- April 2, 2025

Here's the clip CNN played while waiting for Trump to come out on the lawn and announce his plan to further wreck the world's economy. Seems appropriate as it's pretty much what Trump has in store for us:

~~~ David Lynch & Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will impose a new 10 percent tariff on all imported goods along with an additional punitive import tax tailored for each of about 60 countries that his advisers say maintain the most unfair barriers against U.S. products. The president’s long-awaited tariff plan is designed to spur a renaissance in domestic manufacturing and to fill government coffers with tax revenue, even as many economists warn that he is steering the U.S. economy toward slower growth and higher prices.... After returning to the White House on a wave of public anger over inflation, Trump is now asking voters to put up with a renewed period of rising prices in return for the distant promise of rebuilding domestic manufacturing. Already, economists are warning that Trump’s tax increase on imported goods will mean sticker shock on some of Americans’ most important purchases, including groceries, cars and homes.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that when Trump & the Trumpettes boast about the Trump tariffs bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues, they are talking about collecting that money from U.S. consumers. You and me. We're going to fill federal coffers in service of tax breaks for the ultra-rich.

Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal. -- NSC Group Chat Participant ~~~

~~~ ⭐Dasha Burns of Politico: “National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats. Two of the people said they were in or have direct knowledge of at least 20 such chats. All four said they saw instances of sensitive information being discussed.... These latest revelations show that the NSC’s reliance on Signal is widespread and part of standard operations.... Veteran national security officials have warned the practice potentially violates regulations on protecting sensitive national security information from foreign adversaries, and federal recordkeeping laws if the chats are automatically deleted.”

Rachel Bade of Politico: “... Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role.... Musk’s looming exit comes as some Trump administration insiders and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability and increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was thrown into stark relief Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk vocally supported lost his bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by 10 points. It also represents a shift in the Trump-Musk relationship from a month ago, when White House officials and allies were predicting Musk was 'here to stay' and that Trump would find a way to blow past the 130-day time limit.”

Awww! Obama photobomb.

Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Northern California ordered the restoration of legal funds for migrant children who enter the United States alone, temporarily reversing a Trump administration decision last month that had left children at risk of deportation. Nonprofit groups had been fighting the decision since they received notice from the federal government on March 21 that it would terminate funding for legal services for unaccompanied children in immigration court. The halt in funding, according to a complaint filed by the groups, had put some 26,000 children at risk of being cut off from their lawyers and disadvantaged them in adversarial immigration proceedings. The government had argued that the funding was discretionary and that it was not obligated to provide legal representation for the children. But Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco disagreed, saying on Tuesday that by terminating the funding, the government had potentially violated its obligations to protect children from human trafficking.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oddly enough, the judge saw something wrong with sending toddlers to court to fend for themselves against Trump's unscrupulous immigration apparatus.

Court Validates (and Upgrades) Adams' Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: “A judge on Wednesday dismissed corruption charges against Eric Adams, ending the first criminal case against a New York City mayor in modern history and underscoring how ... [Donald] Trump’s Justice Department is using prosecutorial power to advance his agenda. The judge, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, refused to let the government retain the option of reinstating the charges, as Mr. Trump’s Justice Department had sought. The department had argued that the bribery and fraud charges should be dropped for three reasons: They were brought too close to the mayoral election; the U.S. attorney who brought the case had created 'appearances of impropriety'; and, most importantly, the prosecution was hindering the mayor’s cooperation with Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. Judge Ho roundly rejected all three arguments. 'Everything here smacks of a bargain: Dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,' the judge wrote in his 78-page decision....

“Judge Ho in his opinion discounted the Justice Department’s claims that the case had been brought for political reasons by the Manhattan federal prosecutors. 'There is no evidence — zero — that they had any improper motives,' he wrote.... The judge said that granting the government’s request to dismiss the charges without prejudice, which would have allowed it to bring them again, 'would create the unavoidable perception that the mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents.'”

Before and After. Giselle Ewing of Politico: Elon “Musk catapulted the [Wisconsin] state Supreme Court election into national view, vocally backing conservative candidate Brad Schimel — who also clinched ... Donald Trump’s endorsement — and pouring millions into the efforts to get him elected. The Wisconsin election, Musk claimed, would decide the trajectory of not only the whole country, but perhaps all of'Western civilization' and 'the future of the world,' as he said in a Spaces conversation on X hours before polls closed Tuesday.... Musk changed his tune in the hours following the crushing defeat, seemingly indicating that the loss was all part of a bigger plan. 'I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain,' Musk replied to an X user early Wednesday morning.” MB: I wonder why Musk's friend Trump didn't much appreciate his “positional gain” in 2020?

More Trouble for Ed Martin. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: “A Senate fight over ... Donald Trump’s controversial choice for top prosecutor in Washington escalated as Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois) and all other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called for interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin to face questions under oath at a confirmation hearing, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) vowed to block attempts to jam through a vote. While the Senate Judiciary Committee does not typically hold hearings for U.S. attorney nominees, 'Mr. Martin is a nominee whose objectionable record merits heightened scrutiny by this Committee,' Durbin and nine other members wrote Tuesday to the panel’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).... Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery responded that the Judiciary Committee 'doesn’t hold hearings' on U.S. attorney or U.S. marshal nominations.”

Lisa Friedman & Claire Brown of the New York Times: “Over the last few months, Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made explosive accusations against the Biden administration, accusing it of 'insane' malfeasance in its handling of $20 billion in climate grants. Now, as a legal battle ensues over those funds, many of Mr. Zeldin’s claims remain unsupported, and some are flat-out false.... The $20 billion ... was awarded to eight nonprofit groups ... to finance projects ... such as solar panels on community centers and geothermal systems to heat and cool subsidized housing.... The [E.P.A.], which has worked to block the nonprofits from accessing the money, is now being sued by several of the organizations for breach of contract.... In its most recent court filing on March 26, the E.P.A. offered another argument for canceling the grants, claiming the climate funds no longer align with the Trump administration’s priorities.” The article cites a number of bizarre false claims Zeldin has made, including one dependent upon a Project Veritas video. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The truth seems to be, not surprisingly, that Zeldin will do & say anything to keep the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. Remember, the purpose the the Trump administration is to render government agencies dysfunctional. This is the way of tyrants: they rob everything of meaning, leaving the public confused and disheartened. So Trump names his derivative media platform "Truth Social," a name in which both words connote the opposite of its owner, a lying narcissisist. He calls the best efforts to report the real news "fake news." Honorable attempts to bring him to justice are "hoaxes." He and his goons destabilize and frighten lonely, elderly people by threatening "Social Security." "Medicare" may no longer provide "care" and "Medicaid" may no longer give "aid." By radically destroying objective truth, they reckon they can establish their own "truth"/propaganda and get away with murder (say, shooting someone on Fifth Avenue).

Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: “Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called for FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate Elon Musk’s ties to the Chinese government, arguing that the U.S. DOGE Service’s access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data poses an unacceptable conflict of interest, given Beijing’s regulatory power over the tech billionaire’s vast business operations in China.... Raskin also requested details on Musk’s and his associates’ travel to China, asking that the law enforcement agency present a report to the committee by April 15....” MB: Not. Going. To. Happen.

Marie: Ah, you thought I was a silly old alarmist when I said we all were in danger. Okay, I'm no expert. But take it from someone who's been there ~~~

~~~ American Stasi. “Our Police State Has Arrived.” M. Gessen of the New York Times: “Those of us who have lived in countries terrorized by a secret police force can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.... 'It’s the unmarked cars.'... It’s the catastrophic interruption of daily life, as when a Tufts University graduate student ... was grabbed on a suburban street by half a dozen plainclothes agents, most of them masked.... It’s the forced mass transports of immigrants.... It’s the growing irrelevance of the law and the helplessness of judges and lawyers.... It’s the chilling stories that come by word of mouth.... ICE is coming to your workplace, your street, your building.... It’s the invisible hand of the authorities.... It’s the shifting goal posts.... It’s the lists.... It’s the denunciations by concerned citizens.... And, as the historian Timothy Snyder has pointed out, if due process is routinely denied to noncitizens, it will be denied to citizens too, simply because it is often impossible for people to prove that they are citizens.... The United States has become a secret-police state. Trust me, I’ve seen it before.”

~~~~~~~~~~

⭐Wisconsin. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Susan Crawford has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, allowing liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the battleground state’s highest court — and defying Elon Musk after he spent millions of dollars to oppose her. Crawford, a Dane County circuit judge who was backed by Democrats, secured a 10-year term on the court over Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and a former Republican attorney general. As the first major battleground state election of ... Donald Trump’s second term, the technically nonpartisan contest drew national attention and became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “With turnout extraordinarily high for a spring election in an off year, Judge Susan Crawford handily beat Judge Brad Schimel, who ran on his loyalty to ... [Donald] Trump and was aided by [Elon] Musk.... Mr. Musk not only poured money into the race but also campaigned personally in the state, even donning a cheesehead. But his starring role seemed to inflame Democratic anger against him even more than it helped Judge Schimel. The barrage of spending in the race may nearly double the previous record for a single judicial election. With about 95 percent of the vote counted on Tuesday evening, Judge Crawford held a lead of roughly 9 points.... Her win showed that, at least in one instance, Mr. Musk’s seemingly endless reserves of political cash had energized more Democrats than Republicans.” ~~~

     ~~~ Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: “Elon Musk’s money can buy him love from Republicans, but not, it turns out, a Wisconsin Supreme Court election. A campaign awash in more than $25 million in spending by the world’s richest man and groups tied to him ended up much like the other elections of the first months of ... [Donald] Trump’s second term: with a surge of energy from Democratic Wisconsin voters that overwhelmed whatever turnout Republicans could manage in response. On the same night that Judge Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate, was delivering a thumping to Judge Brad Schimel, the Trump-backed conservative, Democrats saw a silver lining in losses in two special congressional elections in Florida. In both races, they were able to cut sharply into the much wider Republican victory margins from November. In all, the night’s results demonstrated what Democratic officials have been saying in recent weeks: that their voters are fired up to fight back against a Trump administration set on tearing down large chunks of the federal government.”

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “Two Trump-backed Republicans won special congressional elections in Florida on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, shoring up their party’s slim majority in the House at a crucial moment for ... [Donald] Trump’s domestic agenda. Jimmy Patronis, the state’s chief financial officer, won the race to replace Matt Gaetz in the First Congressional District, on the western end of the Panhandle. With most of the vote counted late Tuesday, Mr. Patronis had won 57 percent. And State Senator Randy Fine captured the Sixth District seat that had been held by Michael Waltz, now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. That district is rooted in Daytona Beach and parts of the northeast coast. Mr. Fine had 56.7 percent of the vote as of 9 p.m.”

Paul Krugman: "Today ... Trump will announce big new tariffs on top of the substantial tariffs he’s already slapped on steel, aluminum and autos.... I don’t know exactly what will be announced later today. One safe prediction, however, is that over the next few days we’ll see many news analyses purporting to explain the thinking behind this radical change in U.S. policy. Such analyses will be a waste of time, because there’s nothing to explain. I’m not saying that the Trump team’s thinking is unsound. I don’t see any thinking at all.... The administration’s case for tariffs is completely incoherent...: Trumpers are claiming that tariffs 1. Won’t increase prices, because foreign producers will absorb the cost[;] 2. Will cause a large shift in U.S. demand away from imports to domestic production[;] 3. Will raise huge amounts of revenue[.]... [Yet] (1) is inconsistent with (2): If prices of imports don’t rise, why would consumers switch to domestically produced goods? At the same time, (2) is inconsistent with (3): If imports drop a lot, tariffs won’t raise a lot of money, because there won’t be much to tax.... And Trump’s rants about tariffs go beyond nonsense." Read on; Krugman makes econ 101 fun!

⭐John Hudson of the Washington Post: “Members of ... Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.... A senior Waltz aide used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.... Waltz has had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents.... Waltz has also created and hosted other Signal chats with Cabinet members on sensitive topics, including on Somalia and Russia’s war in Ukraine, said a senior administration official. The existence of those groups was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.... Most concerning, however, is the use of personal email, which is widely acknowledged to be susceptible to hacking, spearfishing and other types of digital compromise.” (Also linked yesterday.)  ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I just emailed Mike from my new account FileTopSecretDocsHere@gmail.com

Lisa Rein, et al., of the Washington Post: “The White House is preparing an estimate of what it would cost the federal government to control Greenland as a territory, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, the most concrete effort yet to turn ... Donald Trump’s desire to acquire the Danish island into actionable policy. While Trump’s demands elicited international outrage and a rebuke from Denmark, White House officials have in recent weeks taken steps to determine the financial ramifications of Greenland becoming a U.S. territory, including the cost of providing government services for its 58,000 residents, the people said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, and nobody wearing green eyeshades AND a MAGA cap can calculate the cost to the U.S.'s international standing, prestige and power that a takeover of Greenland would exact.

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that he had reached an agreement with the prominent law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher — which employs Doug Emhoff, former vice president Kamala Harris’s husband — making it the third firm to strike a deal with him in as many weeks.... Emhoff told the firm’s leadership that he disagreed with their seeking a deal with the Trump administration.... Earlier Tuesday afternoon, before Trump’s announcement, Emhoff appeared at a Georgetown Law School event for a previously scheduled discussion. During the event, he said the rule of law was under attack and that lawyers needed to push back and fight for what is right.... Willkie [also] employs Timothy Heaphy, who was chief investigative counsel for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.... While Trump’s statement about the agreement did not explicitly say so, it appeared aimed at helping Willkie avoid the punishments that the president has pursued with other firms.... Trump said Willkie had also agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services in areas he supports, including fighting antisemitism and aiding veterans and military members.”

Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration suspended 'several dozen' research grants to Princeton University this week, the university’s president, Christopher Eisgruber, announced to the campus community Tuesday, the latest potentially heavy financial blow to an Ivy League institution from the federal government. Eisgruber said the school was notified Monday and Tuesday about the suspension of grants from NASA and the Energy and Defense departments.... The university is committed to combating antisemitism, Eisgruber said, and will work with the administration to do that. 'Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University,' he wrote.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's sudden interest in combatting anti-semitism is bogus. He has made a number of public statements stereotyping Jews. In 2024, he said Jews who didn't vote for him should have their heads examined; he has implied again and again that American Jews are Israelis first; and he has relied on tropes about Jews being obsessed with money and being "brutal negotiators"; in 2022, he hosted antisemite Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lardo. And of course there was his infamous "good people on both sides," implying that the Neo-Nazi "side" included many "good people." Only yesterday, Akhilleus pointed to a friend-of-friends-of-Trump who is a virulent antisemite.

Jonathan Last of the Bulwark contrasts Kilmar Abrego Garcia -- a decent family man the U.S. says it's "accidentally deported" to a horrible Salvadoran prison -- with Elon Musk -- "an effete parasite" whom Trump's administration has granted "permission to pillage the government itself." As Kyle Cheney of Politico reported in a story linked yesterday, the Trump administration now says it has no way to correct their ghastly mistake. As an exasperated Last puts it, "America cannot possibly importune the government of El Salvador for the return of this man because we have no authority over them and El Salvador is a close ally we cannot afford to annoy. These motherfuckers are making this argument at the same time as they are dispatching the vice president to stand on foreign soil and threaten a formal treaty ally with territorial annexation. They are doing this while telling Ukraine to submit to Russia because morality and law are immaterial and the only thing that matters is strength—if you don’t hold 'the cards' then you do what the more powerful country tells you to do. Well tell me, counselors, what cards does El Salvador hold that it can’t be made to do what America demands?" Thanks to laura h. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “Lawyers for Venezuelan migrants accused of being members of a violent street gang asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to continue a temporary block on ... [Donald] Trump’s use of a wartime powers law to send hundreds of people to a prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration has asked the justices to intervene and lift a block on the deportations imposed by a lower court. But a brief filed on behalf of the immigrants by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward said that block is now 'the only thing' preventing the Trump administration from sending immigrants 'to a prison in El Salvador, perhaps never to be seen again, without any kind of procedural protection, much less judicial review.' The government has already sent more than 130 Venezuelan men from the United States to El Salvador, according to the court filing, where the migrants 'have been confined, incommunicado, in one of most brutal prisons in the world, where torture and other human rights abuses are rampant.'”

Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: “Óscar Arias Sánchez, the Nobel laureate and former Costa Rican president, said on Tuesday that the United States had revoked his visa to enter the country, with no reason given. A vocal critic of ,,, [Donald] Trump, Mr. Arias appears to be the most high profile in a string of individuals who have had their visas canceled or been denied entry as the Trump administration bars people who it says have 'hostile attitudes' toward the United States.... In February, he wrote on Facebook that Mr. Trump behaved like 'a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do.'... Mr. Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for brokering a plan to end the civil wars in Central America, said he had received a short email from the U.S. government informing him that his visa had been revoked. At a news conference in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, he said that the email, which he received Tuesday morning, cited Section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the secretary of state and consular officials to revoke visas at their discretion.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course the State Department revoked Arias' visa. Even before he spoke out against the Emperor Trumpvus, he had two strikes against him: he has brownish skin AND he won an award Trump covets and will never get. Uh, unless the U.S. invades Norway and replaces all the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Admittedly, a possibility.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “Federal agencies have accelerated their efforts to cut thousands of jobs, offering buyouts and eliminating entire offices as the Trump administration’s deadline to downsize approaches. At least six federal agencies have in recent days extended a 'deferred resignation' offer that was originally pitched to government workers in January as a one-time opportunity that would allow employees to resign but continue to be paid for a period of time. The latest offer was sent to employees at the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, as well as the General Services Administration, according to emails received by workers at those agencies reviewed by The New York Times.” MB: IOW, the heads of these agencies are really askeert of Trump.

Carolyn Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: “Senior leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services were put on leave and countless other employees lost their jobs Tuesday as the Trump administration began a sweeping purge of the agencies that oversee government health programs. Top officials at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration were put on administrative leave or offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service. Other employees began receiving layoff notices or learned they had lost their jobs when their entry badges no longer worked Tuesday morning.” The ABC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Ah, Don't Worry; HHS Points Some Fired Employees to Someone Who Can Help. Lauren Weber of the Washington Post: “Some government health employees who were laid off Tuesday were told to contact Anita Pinder with discrimination complaints. But Pinder, who was the director at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, died last year. The inclusion of Pinder’s name in reduction-in-force notices reflects the chaos of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to shed federal workers and was a gut punch to employees who knew her, said Karen Shields, who worked with Pinder.” ~~~

~~~ Besides, Think of the Savings to Taxpayers! Christina Jewett of the New York Times: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests that laying off thousands of federal workers would tame a massive budget. A few days ago..., [he] embarked on a media tour to defend his decision to lay off thousands of his department’s workers.... But ... spending on personnel at the federal health agencies accounts for a small fraction of its budget — less than 1 percent, according to three budget experts.... The overwhelming majority of the money is spent through Medicare, for the health care of people older than 65, or through Medicaid, for people with low incomes.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In fairness to Kennedy, he was not selected for his job to do it well or to speak with authority. His job is to undermine the vital work the department does, to indirectly take American lives, to lie his way through everything and, in general, to assist in Trump's Grand Project: Proving Government Doesn't Work. So he gets a gold star for making misleading statements about the thousands of workers he's firing. ~~~

~~~ For Instance, There's This. Erika Edwards of NBC News: “Steep federal funding cuts have forced public health officials in one of Texas’ most populous counties — Dallas — to cancel dozens of vaccination clinics and lay off 21 workers on the front lines of combatting the state’s growing measles outbreak.... The vaccines, which included measles, mumps and rubella shots, were meant to be given free to families. The money being cut — $11.4 billion nationwide — was originally allocated to aid community health departments during the [Covid] pandemic.... Last week however, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would 'no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.' 'That’s very short-sighted and not understanding of the way public health works,” [Dallas County health director Dr. Philip] Huang said. 'Being prepared for Covid helps build our capacity to be able to respond to other issues.' Huang said his team was still assessing the exact amount of money slashed in his budget, but estimated it to be in the millions.” ~~~

~~~ “People Will Die.” Jonathan Cohn in the Bulwark: “The sheer breadth of the cuts is staggering: The layoffs affected agencies that exist to fight deadly pathogens, to protect the nation’s drug supply, to finance and carry out cutting-edge research — along with countless other divisions and offices that touch everything from rural health to early childhood care. 'We’ve had a lot of devastating days, but this really is unfathomable,' Wendy Armstrong, director of infectious diseases at the University of Colorado, told me. 'It’s astounding, it will affect patients with all kinds of different kinds of infections, and Americans will suffer, and people will die, and that’s a horrible thing to see coming.'” Read on.

Shannon Najmabadi & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is amassing influence over criminal investigations at the IRS, bypassing senior career officials to appoint an official who previously raised concerns about an investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes to a key leadership role in the division. That official, Gary Shapley, was recently elevated to deputy chief of the IRS’s criminal division and to an 'unprecedented' senior advisory role at the Treasury Department, he wrote to colleagues in a recent email obtained by The Washington Post — giving political appointees a direct line to tax investigations for the first time since Richard M. Nixon was president. Shapley was a longtime IRS agent when he told Congress in 2023 that prosecutors slow-walked an inquiry into then-President Joe Biden’s son for tax offenses.... Shapley’s testimony, along with that of fellow IRS agent Joseph Ziegler, has made him a celebrated figure on the right and endeared him to advisers to ... Donald Trump, who in his first term openly mused about using tax investigations to persecute his perceived political enemies.... Shapley and Ziegler were named senior advisers at the Treasury Department in March and given a broad mandate to look into wrongdoing at the IRS, [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent said in a television interview.”

Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: “Ed Martin, the ardent Trump loyalist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, is pursuing an inquiry into whether former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was competent to pardon his family members and others during his final days in office. The inquiry, which includes previously unreported letters to Mr. Biden’s family and former White House staff members, uses the levers of federal law enforcement to try to harass Mr. Biden’s family and allies and undermine his decisions as president, while scoring political points with ... [Donald] Trump. Mr. Trump and his supporters have increasingly seized on the unsubstantiated theory that the pardons Mr. Biden issued during his final months in office may be invalid because he lacked the mental capacity to consent to them. In an apparent effort to build the case, Mr. Martin began sending letters two months ago to Mr. Biden’s White House aides ... as well as recipients of Mr. Biden’s pardons, such as his brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden.... The letters, signed by Mr. Martin, are informal but provocative, questioning a presidential clemency power that has generally gone unchallenged. They highlight Mr. Martin’s hands-on approach and willingness to use one of the most important U.S. attorneys’ offices in the country to seek retribution against Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies.” More on Mr. Ed, the Talking Horse's Ass, linked below.

     ~~~ And he did this for more than 25 hours, standing at his desk the entire time, with no breaks (even to the restroom). ~~~

In this democracy, the power of people is greater than the people in power. -- Sen. Cory Booker, Senate speech

⭐~~~ Tim Balk, et al., of the New York Times: “Senator Cory Booker, his voice still booming after more than a day spent on the Senate floor railing against the Trump administration, on Tuesday night surpassed Strom Thurmond for the longest Senate speech on record, in an act of astonishing stamina that he framed as a call to action. Mr. Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and one-time presidential candidate, began his speech at 7 p.m. on Monday, vowing to speak as long as he was 'physically able.' In a show of physical and oratorical endurance, he lasted past sunset on Tuesday, assailing ... [Donald] Trump’s cuts to government agencies and crackdown on immigration. He ended his speech at 8:05 p.m., 46 minutes after eclipsing Mr. Thurmond’s 24-hour 18-minute filibuster of a civil rights bill in 1957, by quoting John Lewis, the civil rights hero and congressman. Mr. Booker said of Lewis: 'He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation. I want you to redeem the dream. Let’s be bold in America.'

“Earlier, cheers broke out in the chamber when Mr. Booker passed Mr. Thurmond. For a moment, Mr. Booker addressed the man he had eclipsed. 'To hate him is wrong, and maybe my ego got too caught up that if I stood here, maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand.... I’m not here though because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.'” (This is an update of a story linked multiple times yesterday.) The AP's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Doktor Zoom of Wonkette: "Booker received help throughout the night — and still, [Tuesday] — from other senators, because he is allowed to take questions, which tend to come in the form of brief speeches ending with a question mark. But it’s not just a tactic to help him preserve his voice; it’s also a chance for fellow Democrats to show their unity, with multiple voices pointing out how completely not normal the last two months have been. Booker and other senators called out Trump and co-president Elon Musk for multiple assaults on democracy, like their attempts to shut down federal agencies created by Congress, to cancel spending authorized by Congress, to withhold grants to nonprofits that were already awarded, to fire large segments of the federal workforce without regard to worker protections, and to effectively dissolve America’s alliances by siding with Russia against Ukraine and our European allies. And much more."

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: "For more than 25 hours he held the floor of the Senate, not reading from the phone book or children’s literature, as some of his predecessors have done, but delivering a coherent, powerful speech about the meaning of America and the ways in which the Trump regime is destroying our democracy. On the same day that ... the Washington Post reported that members of Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including national security advisor Michael Waltz, have been skirting presidential records laws and exposing national security by using Gmail accounts to conduct government business, and the same day that mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services gutted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Booker launched a full-throated defense of the United States of America."

For the past nine weeks, Ed Martin has consistently undermined the independence and abused the power of the US Attorney's office in DC, openly threatening and intimidating political opponents, dismissing charges against his own clients, firing public servants for their roles in legitimate investigations and using his office as a cudgel to chill dissent and free speech. -- Sen. Adam Smith (D-Calif.), in a statement ~~~

~~~ Scott MacFarlane of CBS News: "... [Donald] Trump's controversial choice to be the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, faces an uncertain future, as a Senate Democrat plans to put an indefinite hold on his nomination. Martin, a 'Stop the Steal' advocate and former defense attorney who represented U.S. Capitol riot defendants, is Mr. Trump's nominee to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Sen. Adam Schiff, a first-term Democrat from California, plans to hold his nomination amid a growing number of controversial statements and decisions by Martin. The position is among the highest-profile and most powerful federal prosecutor positions in the U.S. Martin ... has been serving as acting U.S. attorney for D.C. since Inauguration Day. ~~~

     ~~~ Sen. Schiff's full statement is here.

Yo, Mike, Republicans Have Babies, Too. Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: “A handful of Republican lawmakers prevailed in bucking House Republican leadership’s attempts to block a bill that would allow new parents in Congress to vote remotely. The stunning rebellion within the majority’s own ranks has derailed the House from considering other legislative measures the rest of the week, an embarrassing defeat for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and his leadership team’s hold on the fractious conference. Eight Republicans joined Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) to vote down a procedural hurdle, known as a rule, that included language endorsed by leadership that would have prevented her bipartisan resolution from ever being considered this Congress.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel's Wars. Vivian Yee & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: “The United Nations said Israeli forces killed [15 rescue workers in Gaza] as they were trying to aid injured civilians, then buried them in a mass grave. Israel said nine of the 15 dead were Palestinian militants.... 'They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives,' the U.N. humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said on X. 'We demand answers & justice.' The Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations said all of those killed were humanitarian workers who should never have come under attack. The Red Crescent called the killings a war crime and demanded accountability.... [The U.N.'s accusation was] rare.... The organization ... is typically cautious about assigning clear blame.”