Week 22 — The Return

The main theme of this week’s list is Trump’s tariff war declaration and the global disruption that ensued, but before we get to that, I want to recognize the importance of the Hands Off protests which took place on Saturday. The media was not prepared to adequately cover the size and scope of this protest, which took even its organizers by surprise. I wrote more about why the protests really mattered on my Substack, but I also want to highlight, that as millions took to the streets at more than 1,600 locations, we passed an important hurdle. Many who protested were doing so for the first time, and got to see firsthand that they could do so safely and without incident. Ironically, it was Trump who preemptively erected a fence around the White House on Friday night. Protests have been remarkably effective: just ask Elon Musk who has seen his net worth crumble as Tesla stock continued to plummet following mass protests at showrooms nationwide.

This week it wasn’t only citizens pushing back. We were once again joined by the courts in multiple rulings, and, for the first time, Senate Republicans and business leaders. Republican Senators at long last pushed back on Trump usurping the legislative branch’s powers, hardly a profile in courage at this late date, but a start. Wall Street got a rude awakening this week that Trump does not have a plan or a strategy for the things he does, something anyone who follows this project knew all too well. The money quote this week from Bloomberg News: “There were people who were behind Trump for selfish reasons. Now it’s hit their stock portfolios, and they are saying ‘holy sh-t’ — they didn’t expect he would do it.” Cry me a river. Welcome to our shared reality.

Never in the history of our country have we seen one man unilaterally cause so much global disruption, which seems destined to lead into a global recession. Trump’s so-called Liberation Day, unleashing the highest tariffs since 1909, erased trillions of dollars of U.S. stock market capitalization in a matter of days. By the end of the week, some Wall Street leaders were saying we are heading into a recession, while others said we were already there — a mere ten weeks into Trump’s time in office. As is typical for all Trump did in his first and now second regime, the launch of and aftermath of his so-called Liberation Day were characterized by chaos, mixed messaging, changing goal posts, and complete disarray. I want to also highlight the spike in U.S. Treasury yields, as global investors dumped U.S. Treasuries and sought out other countries as safe havens, a possible harbinger for the end of U.S. exceptionalism, ironically under the man who promised to make America great again. I wrote more about the loss of U.S. exceptionalism, and the corner Trump has backed himself into, here.

While Trump’s chaotic trade war dominated the news cycles this week, there are numerous stories and trends related to federal agencies — the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Health and Human Services — that are extremely alarming. The second death of an unvaccinated child amid a growing measles outbreak, and an HHS Secretary who is an anti-vaxxer. The mass exodus from SSA and the IRS, while the latter is in the midst of tax season. I hope you will take the time to read through the items below that indicate the decay of our federal government.

1. A federal judge ordered the White House to lift what had been a two-month ban on the AP, while a lawsuit plays out, saying the AP has “suffered significant, concrete harms.” The judge, a Trump appointee, cited AP was likely to win its case based on the First Amendment.
2. Pulitzer prize winning columnist Eugene Robinson left the Post, where he had worked since 1980 and been a columnist since 2005, citing owner Jeff Bezos’s new directive for editorial content.
3. On Wednesday after the market closed, in what Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” he announced a baseline tariff of 10% on 190 countries, and shared a chart showing an additional “reciprocal” tariff on 57 countries, claiming trade deficits were a “national emergency.”
4. Analysts noted the reciprocal tariff percentages seemed to have applied a formula of dividing a country’s trade surplus by its total export value, then multiplying the figure by 0.5, a simplistic methodology that did not differentiate allies from adversaries, and punished some poor nations.
5. Trump put the highest tariff rate of 50% on Lesotho, a tiny African kingdom with a gross domestic product of just over $2 billion, and a country that Trump said recently “nobody has ever heard of.” Economists said Trump’s tariff would destroy their economy.
6. Also included in those targeted by reciprocal tariffs were uninhabited islands, islands with tiny populations of fewer than 2,000, and islands populated by penguins and seals. Notably, Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, and Iran were not hit with any tariffs.
7. Trump’s 10% baseline tariff also hit ally Australia, which has no tariffs on incoming U.S. goods, and is a net importer. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the measure “totally unwarranted,” and “not the act of a friend.”
8. The tariffs were in addition to the already imposed 25% tariffs on U.S. allies Canada and Mexico, with exceptions for items in the 2018 agreement, and an additional 20% on China. They were also in addition to tariffs on auto imports that went into effect this week.
9. WAPO’s fact checker noted that Trump’s speech at the Rose Garden was full of lies and claims that have been previously debunked, including citing a tariff by Canada on dairy products that is gone, a false claim that Americans are poorer, and lies about the origin of income tax.
10. WSJ reported Trump’s aim was to bring an end to the decades-long era of globalization, saying his Liberation Day was about having goods bought by American consumers to be built in American factories.
11. The scope and size of the tariffs shocked global markets, with many saying the move was far worse than their worst case scenario. Analysts called the move “a disaster,” and “ridiculous,” and “It shows no comprehension as to what he is doing to other countries.”
12. Trade experts at the conservative CATO institute said in a note, “With today’s announcement, U.S. tariffs will approach levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which incited a global trade war and deepened the Great Depression.”
13. Economists at rating agency Fitch said Trump’s tariff rates were the highest since 1910, and “This is a game changer, not only for the U.S. economy but for the global economy,” adding, “Many countries will likely end up in a recession.”
14. Late Wednesday, four Senate Republicans joined with Democrats, voting 51–48 on a measure to undo some of the tariffs on Canada, a symbolic vote opposing Trump, despite his targeting them on social media. The resolution cited a “made-up” fentanyl emergency.
15. Global markets plunged, with the U.S. taking the biggest hit. The small-cap Russell 2000 benchmark plummeted more than 5%, becoming the first U.S. stock measure to enter bear market territory (down 20%).
16. On Thursday morning, layoffs surged to 275,240 in March, the highest level since the start of the pandemic in 2020, due to Musk’s DOGE cuts of 216,215 federal workers, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
17. On Thursday morning, car maker Stellantis Chrysler announced it would idle two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico, and laid off 900 workers as it tried to navigate Trump’s 25% automotive tariffs that went info effect last week.
18. Land Rover and Audi temporarily stopped exporting cars to the U.S. NYT reported if other auto manufacturers follow, it could lead to higher car prices and widespread layoffs. Car companies have had to deal with the sudden tariffs, and uncertainty of what Trump will do next.
19. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers posted on X that he would have resigned in protest if “any administration of which I was a part had launched an economic policy so totally ungrounded in serious analysis or so dangerous and damaging.”
20. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters the tariffs were not negotiable. After the markets closed down by nearly 1,700 points, Trump told reporters on Air Force One he was negotiating with trade partners, saying, “Every country has called us.”
21. Trump claimed, “We put ourselves in the driver’s seat. If we would have asked these countries to do us a favor, they would have said no. Now they will do anything for us,” and adding, “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.” It was unclear what he meant.
22. JPMorgan’s chief economist raised the odds of a U.S. recession from 40% to 60%, calling Trump’s tariffs the largest tax hike on U.S. households and businesses since 1968. Several other banks raised their odds for a recession.
23. Pro-Trump news networks Fox News and Newsmax removed their onscreen stock tickers. Fox News host Harris Faulkner likened Trump’s tariffs to a war, and said, “people in this country would support the war effort,” and “We gotta do 100 percent buy-in over this bumpy period.”
24. Overnight Thursday, China retaliated, imposing a 34% tariff on all imports from the U.S., matching the level of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on Chinese products, as well as several other measures against U.S. companies, and called out “unilateral bullying.”
25. U.S. equities tumbled Friday morning. Trump posted on Truth Social, “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED — THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!”
26. Trump also shared a video on Truth Social before the market opened, suggesting chaos was part of his strategy, and he was “purposely CRASHING” the markets in part to force the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.
27. Trump also tried to cast blame on Powell after the Fed Chair’s speech, posting, “This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always “late,”” and adding, “CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!”
28. FT reported on the “speed and scale” of the American public souring on Trump’s economic agenda: just before his latest tariffs, 63% of Americans had a negative view of his economic policy, the highest figure since records began 50 years ago.
29. On Friday, the stock market plummeted for the second day, with the S&P 500 down 6%, down over 10% in two days, the biggest fall since the onset of the pandemic. The NASDAQ entered a bear market. Trump golfed at a Saudi-backed tournament at one of his clubs on Friday.
30. Trump was forced to give an additional 75 day reprieve to the TikTok ban, after being hours away from announcing a planned sale of its U.S. operations, and the Chinese government said it would not approve the deal without first discussing Trump’s tariffs and trade policy.
31. NBC News reported that retirees were “stunned” by the sudden market turmoil, and their shrinking 401(k)s. Some said they would pause big ticket purchases and put home renovations on hold, while others said their quality of life would be impacted.
32. Late Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social acknowledging the impact on Americans’ wallets, but added, “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” and later wrote, “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL.”
33. Trump missed a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base on Friday for the return of the remains of four U.S. soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania, as he was in Florida golfing and then holding a political fundraising dinner.
34. On Wednesday, WSJ reported that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is lobbying Trump and regime members to agree to a settlement before the company’s April 14 Federal Trade Commission trial. Some Trump aides say the lobbying has been too aggressive.
35. On Wednesday, Politico reported national security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly used Signal groups to share information on crises around the world, including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa, and Europe. At least 20 groups were set up to communicate.
36. On Thursday, the Pentagon inspector general announced it had agreed to the request by top senators to launch an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sharing of military information on the Signal app. It was highly unusual for the IG to publicly announce a probe.
37. On Thursday, NYT reported that after a White House meeting Trump had with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, where she laid out a list of people disloyal to Trump, he fired at least six members of his National Security Council overnight.
38. Waltz, who had tried to protect staffers, was brought into the meeting near the end, but no longer had strong standing with Trump to successfully defend them. Loomer is part of a group that has looked to disparage White House staffers they consider to be too hawkish.
39. Later Thursday, WAPO reported that Trump also fired two National Security Agency officials, Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also led the U.S. Cyber Command, and his civilian deputy, Wendy Noble.
40. Trump claimed Loomer was not involved in the firings; however on Friday morning, she posted on X that the two had been “disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired,” and thanked Trump for “firing these Biden holdovers.”
41. Reuters reported that the Trump regime fired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, who holds a senior position in NATO, as part of Trump’s continuing national security purge.
42. Chatfield joined a growing list of U.S. military leaders who are female and/or people of color and have been fired by the regime (all covered in The Weekly List). It was unclear whether Trump or Hegseth fired Chatfield.
43. WAPO reported on long lines at Social Security offices, after recipients mistakenly thought they needed to prove they are still alive, or their checks would stop. New rules that come after Musk’s claims of fraud require they come in person, not online, and phone lines are jammed.
44. WAPO also reported that Social Security’s website has crashed repeatedly in recent days, for periods of 20 minutes to almost a day, impacting retirees and disabled people. Many have also been unable to sign into their accounts, or if they do, find information is missing.
45. DOGE agents did not test new software they installed, resulting in crashes. DOGE and acting commissioner Leland Dudek are also pushing for more layoffs in IT. Musk ally Scott Coulter, the newly named chief information officer, has demanded a 50% cut in staffing.
46. On Wednesday, the lawyer for Maryland man Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, expressed shock in a court filing over the Trump regime’s claim that it had little power to get him back, and urged the judge to intervene.
47. On Friday, Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump regime had acted without “legal basis” when they arrested Abrego Garcia, and ordered that he be returned to the U.S. by the end of Monday.
48. On Saturday, Trump’s DOJ appealed the ruling, saying the judge did not have the authority to order the Trump regime to order the return of Abrego Garcia.
49. On Saturday, deputy AG Todd Blanche suspended Erez Reuveni, a senior DOJ immigration lawyer and respected 15-year veteran, for failing to follow orders on the case, after he conceded when asked by the judge that Abrego Garcia’s deportation should never have taken place.
50. NYT reported the thinned out DOJ staff are struggling to defend Trump’s policies in court. In the Jenner & Block case, DOJ lawyer Richard Lawson had a hard time defending why Andrew Weissmann, who left the firm four years ago, is a national security threat.
51. Some judges have expressed anger at the nonsensical answers and lies they are hearing, such as Judge Boasberg, Judge Edward Chen on the temporary protection of Venezuelans case, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson on the closing of the CFPB.
52. WAPO reported at least half of the front-line attorneys in the solicitor general’s office, an elite group within the DOJ who argue before the Supreme Court, have left or plan to leave, an usually high turnover. Many are uncomfortable with the directives from AG Pam Bondi.
53. On Sunday, Judge Xinis refused to pause her demand that Trump regime return Abrego Garcia by Monday night, saying the regime committed a “grievous error” that “shocks the conscience,” adding the regime had no legal authority to arrest, detain, and deport him.
54. On Monday, the appeals court unanimously rejected the DOJ’s request to pause Xinis’s order, saying it has “no legal authority to snatch” a person lawfully living in the U.S. and deport them without due process, and called the contention that the courts are powerless to intervene “unconscionable.”
55. Shortly after, Trump’s DOJ asked the Supreme Court to intervene, claiming Xinis had exceeded her authority by engaging in “district-court diplomacy,” saying it would require the regime to work with the government of El Salvador on the release.
56. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary stay on the midnight deadline, to give the Supreme Court time to consider the case.
57. A judge in Boston held an ICE agent in contempt, after they detained Wilson Martell-Lebron, a suspect, last week as he was leaving court on an unrelated case, saying he had denied Martell-Lebron of his rights to due process and a fair trial by taking him into custody.
58. Reuters reported that more than 500 law professors and other legal groups submitted friends of the court briefs in support of Perkins Coie on Wednesday. One cited, “Today, Perkins Coie has fallen into the President’s disfavor. Tomorrow, it could be any one of us.”
59. Professors from several law schools also submitted briefs, saying Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie is unconstitutional and threatens the integrity of the U.S. judicial system.
60. Scores of prominent former national security officials, of both Democratic and Republican administrations, filed a friend of the court brief, calling Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie illegal.
61. On Wednesday, nearly 2,000 scientists, including elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, called on the Trump regime “to cease its wholesale assault on U.S. science,” adding, “we see real danger.”
62. On Wednesday, WAPO reported John Howard, the administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, was among those fired in the Department of Health and Human Services’ mass firings last week. The firing could disrupt care for the more than 100,000 beneficiaries.
63. On Thursday, Judge James Boasberg said in a hearing that there was a “fair likelihood” that the Trump regime violated his order, after extensively questioning a DOJ lawyer about the timing of deporting the Venezuelans and not turning the plane around after being ordered to.
64. Boasberg asked who in the regime knew about his order and when. The DOJ attorney repeatedly said he did not know or was protected by attorney-client privilege. Boasberg said likely next week he would rule on whether the White House was in contempt for ignoring his order.
65. On Thursday, 19 attorneys general sued the Trump regime over his recent executive order on election administration, arguing that his order was unconstitutional.
66. On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the HHS from cutting $11 billion in Covid-19 related funds, after a lawsuit filed by 23 attorneys general who alleged it would upend programs including tracking infectious diseases, substance abuse services, and immunizations.
67. On Thursday, ABC News reported that as part of HHS cuts earlier in the week, the entire staff at the Centers for Disease Control studying outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis were fired.
68. NBC News reported that programs that help Americans stop smoking were also gutted by HHS. The Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC and the Center for Tobacco Products at the FDA both had mass layoffs, the impacts of which could be deadly.
69. On Thursday, WSJ reported that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would reinstate some programs and federal workers he had cut or fired days ago, including a CDC program that monitors blood lead levels for children and other programs.
70. Entire divisions and offices were haphazardly cut in the CDC, FDA, and National Institutes of Health, including groups focused on HIV prevention, violence prevention, injury prevention, and the Freedom of Information Act office.
71. On Friday, the Trump regime’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services dropped a Biden rule for Medicare to cover anti-obesity drugs. No reason was given.
72. On Friday, government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics sued the Trump regime for dismantling the CDC’s FOIA office, calling it “arbitrary and capricious” in a complaint.
73. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that U.S. measles cases rose 26% in the past week to reach 607 reported cases in 21 states, with 97% of the cases in people who were unvaccinated or unsure of their vaccination status.
74. NYT reported that a second child died of the measles in Texas on Thursday, the second confirmed measles death in the U.S. in a decade. The UMC Health System said the 8 year-old girl was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions.
75. Kennedy attended the funeral on Sunday, and made his first statement encouraging vaccinations, posting on X, “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.” Of the 642 confirmed cases, 499 were in Texas.
76. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy posted on X, “Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles.” Cassidy also called on Kennedy to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which he chairs. Kennedy declined.
77. On Thursday, Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs ended a mortgage rescue program that had helped more than 40,000 military veterans keep their homes after they were late on payments.
78. On Thursday, Attorney General Bondi signed off on a decision to reinstate gun rights for Trump ally Mel Gibson and nine others. The Trump regime fired pardon attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, in Week 18 for refusing to reinstate Gibson’s gun rights.
79. On Monday, NYT reported the Trump’s DOJ claimed executive privilege in its attempt to stop Oyer from testifying before Congress about her termination, saying in a letter to her that internal conversations are covered.
80. The DOJ had sent armed law enforcement to Oyer’s home to deliver the its letter on Friday, a highly unusual step for an employee who has not engaged in any misconduct. Oyer said she “will not be deterred by the intimidation tactics.”
81. On Thursday, the right-wing Daily Caller reported the Trump regime was set to pause $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University. Brown was one of a handful of colleges to agree to a board vote on divesting from Israel, although the vote was against it.
82. Brown’s president said the threats “raise new and previously unthinkable questions about the future of academic freedom and self-governance” and said the school “would be compelled to vigorously exercise our legal rights to defend these freedoms.”
83. On Friday, former president Barack Obama called on colleges to stand up to Trump and push back against actions that violate academic freedom, saying in a speech, if “you’re just being intimidated, well, you should be able to say, that’s why we got this big endowment.”
84. Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber wrote in an article that Trump’s attacks on Columbia are “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s,” adding, “Every American should be concerned.”
85. On Tuesday, the Trump regime froze $1 billion in funding for Cornell University and $790 million for Northwestern University, pending a civil rights investigation into both schools.
86. NBC News reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of more than three dozen students and alumni of California universities in the past week. UMass Amherst also said that five of their international students had their visas revoked, with no known connection to campus activity.
87. WAPO reported Trump’s National Park Service has removed Harriet Tubman’s image from a webpage about The Underground Railroad, and rewrote the description by removing “the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight” and replaced it without mentioning slavery.
88. Days after the Post report, the National Park Service restored Harriet Tubman and other materials that were removed, saying in a statement that changes to the page had been made “without approval” from the agency’s leadership.
89. On Thursday, 130 employees of the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank in Washington that Trump wants to shutter, were placed on leave, as Musk’s DOGE agents quickly shut down most of the center starting on Monday. Just five employees remained.
90. The Center was created in 1968 as a working memorial to honor president Woodrow Wilson. The center was funded 30% by Congress, with the rest from private donations, and has been run by Republicans and Democrats. It was unclear what would happen to its materials.
91. On Friday, a coalition of federal employee unions sued the Trump regime over Trump’s executive order for agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreements with federal employee unions.
92. On Friday, 21 attorneys general sued the Trump regime over its efforts to dismantle The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the federal agency that is charged with supporting the country’s libraries.
93. On Friday, a federal judge barred the Trump regime from limiting funds to the NIH which support research at universities and academic medical centers. The Trump regime asked for a verdict to move ahead with an appeal.
94. On Friday, the New York State Education Department, in response to the Trump regime’s threat to pull federal funding, said it will not comply with Trump’s DEI order, saying, “there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”
95. State leaders in Minnesota and New York said they would not comply with the Department of Education’s demand to gather signatures from local schools certifying their compliance. California and Vermont said they did not need to respond. Chicago’s mayor said it would sue over any cuts.
96. On Friday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump regime to temporarily freeze $65 million in teacher-training grants that the regime claimed would promote DEI. The grants go toward placing teachers in poor and rural areas and recruiting a diverse workforce, reflecting the communities served.
97. On Friday, a federal judge warned the Trump regime to comply with an order calling for the unfreezing of funds for emergency preparedness through FEMA and other federal agencies, saying a manual review was being used by the regime to “covertly” withhold funds.
98. On Friday, Trump, Vance, and Musk stood up for far-right French leader Marine Le Pen after she was found guilty of embezzlement and barred from running in 2027. Trump called it a “witch hunt;” Vance accused European leaders of “trying to throw opposition leaders in jail;” Musk wrote “Free LePen!”
99. On Friday, the Trump regime awarded multi-billion space launch contracts to Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. The SpaceX contract at $5.9 billion was the largest of three contracts awarded. Blue Origin received $2.4 billion.
100. On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service started a new round of firings, including the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, which was expected to fire a quarter of its workforce.
101. On Saturday, WAPO reported federal immigration officials are asking the IRS to provide information on the locations of 7 million people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Previously, DHS officials had sought information on 700,000 people with subject to removal orders.
102. On Monday, the Trump regime said in a court filing that the IRS and ICE had reached an agreement on information sharing, and claimed the IRS had not turned over any information yet. For weeks, top IRS officials have told the Trump regime that sharing data is illegal.
103. Under the terms of the deal, ICE can request information from the IRS about people who have been ordered to leave the U.S., or people they are investigating. An advocate for taxpayers’ rights called the move “unprecedented.”
104. On Tuesday, Melanie Krause, the acting head of the IRS, stepped down, over the Trump regime’s plan to share undocumented migrants’ personal information with ICE. The move by Krause, who took the leading role two months ago, took the agency by surprise.
105. On Wednesday, more senior officials at the IRS resigned. The moves come as the country is in the midst of tax season. Experts estimate that undocumented workers pay $66 billion in taxes a year, which will now be lost revenue.
106. WAPO reported that in the haste of Trump’s mass deportations, U.S. citizens are also being picked up by ICE agents. At least seven people have been wrongfully detained and deported.
107. On Saturday, Secretary of State Rubio revoked visas of all South Sudan passport holders, citing the country’s transitional government had failed to accept citizens who the Trump regime was trying to deport in a “timely manner.”
108. Detroit Free Press reported that Amir Makled, a lawyer representing a University of Michigan pro-Palestinian protestor, was detained at Detroit Metro Airport by federal agents, questioned about his clients, and told to hand over his cellphone.
109. Makled said what ensued was a 90-minute back and forth, after he refused to hand over his phone. He said, “I’m an American citizen. I’m not worried about being deported.” Ultimately they released him without taking his phone, but looked at his contacts instead.
110. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security revoked temporary legal status for roughly 985,000 migrants who entered the U.S. using the Biden-era CBP One app at the border in order to seek asylum and be given temporary work authorization.
111. Reuters reported that the Trump regime appointed a junior level officer hired in 2021 to lead the U.S. Foreign Service Department’s Global Talent Management bureau, a role typically held by veteran foreign service officers with decades of experience.
112. AP reported after mass layoffs, nearly half of the National Weather Service offices have 20% vacancy rates, as severe weather was set to cross the nation’s heartland. Meteorologists at the Louisville office were unable to survey tornado damage as they used to due to shortages.
113. WAPO reported the Trump regime has also cut a preparedness grant program, known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, which had awarded more than $5 billion since 2020, leaving states unprepared for future disasters.
114. On Saturday, huge crowds gathered to protest at more than 1,200 “Hands Off” rallies nationwide to protest Trump, Musk, the regime’s funding cuts, and policies. In some cities, the crowd sizes were over 100,000, despite rainy conditions.
115. On Saturday, Navarro downplayed the turmoil from the tariffs, saying on CNN, “The market will find a bottom. It will be soon,” adding, “The S&P 500 is going to have a very broad based recovery…and life is going to be beautiful here in America.”
116. On Saturday, Bloomberg reported Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was not included in the small group of Trump’s inner circle that made the decision on the tariff strategy, a rude awakening for Wall Street investors who viewed him as a grounded voice.
117. On Saturday, Trump continued his long weekend of golfing at a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament at his resort in Florida. Every room at the 643-room Trump Doral, including the $13,000-a-night presidential suite, was sold out through the weekend, as were the restaurants.
118. As the protests were taking place and amid the tariff uncertainty, the White House posted on social media, “The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow.”
119. Trump also enriched himself by holding a fundraising event at his Trump International Golf Club on Friday, and posted on Truth Social, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.”
120. Washington City Paper reported that Trump is planning a military parade for his 79th birthday on Saturday, June 14, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. The parade would stretch for nearly four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House.
121. On Sunday, Trump aides sought to defend his tariffs on weekend shows. Bessent said, “I see no reason that we have to price in a recession,” claiming 50 countries have called the regime to negotiate and other countries “have been bad actors for a long time.”
122. Bessent, a centi-millionaire, claimed without evidence that “Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations,” adding, “most Americans don’t have everything in the market,” and “People have a long-term view.”
123. On Sunday, one of the biggest bulls on Tesla, Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities, slashed his target on the stock by 43%, citing a brand crisis caused by Musk and Trump’s trade policies.
124. On Sunday, returning from his weekend of golfing, after U.S. futures closed down 4.1%, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine.” Previous posts on social media suggested he welcomed the market fall.
125. On Monday morning, after global markets plunged overnight and U.S. opened down again, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid!” adding, “Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
126. On Monday, CNBC reported 69% of CEOs expect a recession, with many worried there will be a boycott of American brands. One CEO said, “This is a Trump recession,” another called it “Disappointingly stupid and illogical.”
127. On Monday, Trump supporter billionaire Bill Ackman posted on X that Trump’s tariffs will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy, and the U.S. is “heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.”
128. On Sunday, WSJ reported lawsuits are expected to be filed testing Trump’s authority to impose tariffs. No president has ever asserted such unilateral authority over trade flows. One small Florida company represented by a libertarian advocacy group has already filed a lawsuit.
129. On Monday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a right-wing group backed by Leonard Leo and Charles Koch, sued Trump to stop the tariffs, saying Trump’s invoking of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify tariffs on nearly all countries is unlawful.
130. On Monday, seven Republican senators signed on to a bipartisan bill which would require Trump to notify Congress within 28 hours of new or increased tariffs, and provide an explanation of the rationale and the potential impact on U.S. businesses and consumers.
131. The White House said in a statement that if the bill passes, Trump would veto it, claiming the bill would “dangerously hamper the President’s authority and duty to determine our foreign policy and protect our national security.”
132. On Monday, the Dow Jones saw its biggest point swing from low to high in history, opening down as low as 1,703 and rallying as high as 892 after rumors that Trump would put implementation of tariffs on hold for 90 days, which the White House later said was “fake news.”
133. Trump’s economic team continued to contradict each other. In the morning, Navarro told the media there would be no negotiations. Later in the day, Bessent said he told foreign officials to “come to us with your offers…And at a point, President Trump will be ready to negotiate.”
134. On Monday, Trump canceled a scheduled press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room, and moved it to the Oval Office, which can fit far fewer members of the media, and those will be handpicked by the regime.
135. The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt granted a journalist from Musk’s social media platform X a seat in the press briefing room. Leavitt also directed the first question to the X representative.
136. On Monday, in a 7–4 vote, an appeals court blocked the Trump regime’s firings of two federal board leaders, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board, saying they must be reinstated.
137. Late Monday, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling, 5–4 saying for now the Trump regime could deport Venezuelan migrants using the Aliens Enemies Act. The narrow ruling found the migrants’ lawyers should have filed in Texas, where they were being held.
138. Immigration experts said the ruling would make it nearly impossible for migrants, many of whom do not speak English, to navigate the process. And for ones that do, their cases will be heard in some of the most conservative federal courts in the country.
139. The ruling was limited in scope, and did not address Trump’s invoking the Alien Enemies Act, or whether he followed several provisions in the act that were meant to limit how and when the law is used.
140. On Tuesday, the ACLU and Legal Aid Society brought another case on behalf of two Venezuelan migrants who were moved from Texas to a jail in New York in the past week. The case was brought in Manhattan to stop their removal by the Trump regime under the Alien Enemies Act.
141. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court paused a ruling that required the regime to rehire 16,000 probationary workers, saying they had not suffered the kind of damages that would give them standing to sue. Another judge’s ruling requiring reinstatement remains in place.
142. WSJ reported that CEOs were breaking their silence, and publicly criticizing Trump and his trade wars. Many warned about the consequences to their business and of higher prices to consumers. CEOs have also pushed trade groups to speak out forcefully.
143. Bloomberg reported many of Trump’s biggest supporters in the business world are also criticizing his trade policy. Many were surprised he would upend the entire global economic order, or supported him for “selfish reasons” and now see their portfolio values plummeting.
144. At a Senate hearing, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis asked U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” pushing back on claims the regime made on the benefits of Trump’s tariffs.
145. On Tuesday, the stock market closed down again, and bond yields started to rise as concerns about U.S. treasuries remaining the main destination for flight to quality investors. Trump further escalated, threatening to raise tariffs against China by another 50%.
146. NYT reported that Trump’s inner circle did not have a clear strategy for how the global trade disruption would play out. They had not gamed out beyond the stock market diving and other countries retaliating, and so were left flat-footed for managing the complexity of what came next.
147. Later Tuesday, Trump struck a defiant tone in a speech to House Republicans, claiming some countries would “do anything” to strike a deal with the U.S., and saying, “They’ve ripped us off left and right,” and claiming “money is pouring in at a level that we’ve never seen before.”
148. Later Tuesday, Trump increased tariffs on China to 104%. China responded Wednesday, raising tariffs on the U.S. to 84%. The European Union also approved its first set of retaliatory tariffs on Wednesday. Trump’s tariffs were the highest since 1909.
149. On Wednesday, the Delta Air Lines CEO said Trump tariffs are “the wrong approach,” citing a “reduction in broad consumer confidence and corporate confidence.” Walmart pulled its first quarter guidance citing Trump’s tariffs. JPMorgan’s CEO said a recession is “likely.”
150. On Wednesday, in a troubling sign, U.S. Treasury yields continued to spike, as global investors seemed to pull away from a view of the U.S. as a safe haven. A treasury auction on Tuesday got a tepid response.
151. On Wednesday, as the market opened, Trump posted on Truth Social to “BE COOL!,” claiming, “The USA will be bigger and better than ever before,” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
152. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that based on a review of U.S. legal records, about 90% of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador by the Trump regime had no U.S. criminal record.