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."
~~~~~~~~~~
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.
28 Comments