[guest post by Dana]

Nothing we don’t already know, arguing against it would be to argue in vain:

Since 2015, every time it looked as if Trump’s goose was cooked (Access Hollywood, impeachment, Jan 6th, indictments, etc), he found a way to come back and succeed. This is why so many Rs in Congress are willing to give him benefit of the doubt on tariffs.

Those who pulled the trigger too soon (denouncing Access Hollywood, criticizing his Jan. 6th actions; assuming he’d never win nomination in ‘24), are either no longer in Congress or have been thoroughly chastened.

If nervous R’s try to push-back on Trump and/or try and distance themselves from his policies, they risk backlash in their CD’s/states from the base, esp, if Trump’s tariff gamble turns out to be less than the disaster markets expect.

Plus, there’s a chance that the courts ultimately step in and invalidate Trump’s actions. That too is a reason for worried R’s to hold their powder.

If economy does indeed slip into a recession, GOP members will feel the brunt of the anger in midterms, but running away from Trump won’t make their re-election prospects any better.

All of this is to say that we should expect to see R’s stick with Trump, even as the markets convulse more.

I think this cowardly and self-serving description of Congressional Republicans is correct. Even giving Trump the benefit of the doubt on tariffs is a self-serving decision to protect their own political futures. He’s so smart and clever, he got away with murder thn surely he’ll get away with crashing the economy too! Shameful.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]
A gift to Trump:

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed President Donald Trump to enforce the Alien Enemies Act for now, handing the White House a significant victory that will let immigration officials rely on a sweeping wartime authority to rapidly deport alleged gang members.

The unsigned decision in the case, the most closely watched emergency appeal pending at the Supreme Court, lets Trump invoke the 1798 law to speed removals while litigation over the act’s use plays out in lower courts. The court stressed that people deported going forward should receive notice they are subject to the act and an opportunity to have their removal reviewed.

The report breaks down the vote: the 3 liberal justices, along with Coney-Barrett, dissented.

There was more news from the Court today:

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Monday to pause a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The temporary order comes hours after a Justice Department emergency appeal to the Supreme Court arguing U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.

The administration has conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs.

Even though the administration acknowledged and agreed that they had wrongly sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, there is still going to be a court-approved delay in returning him to the United States. No new date was set by the Court.

Expectedly, Trump’s team of attorneys argued that the Court had “overstepped” their power by ordering Abrego Garcia returned.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

It looks like Trump’s shenanigans aren’t going to fly:

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the administration appeared to have acted “in bad faith” when it hurriedly assembled three deportation flights on March 15 at the same time that Boasberg was arranging emergency court proceedings to assess the legality of the effort.

Boasberg said during a hearing Thursday that he’s still weighing what penalties he could impose if he does hold officials in contempt. But courts have broad power to issue fines or impose jail time on people who defy court orders. Boasberg could even try to order the administration to demand that El Salvador return the deportees to the United States.

Second news item

I guess the Pentagon didn’t get the message from the White House that the “case is closed”:

The acting inspector general for the Pentagon announced an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the signal app to discuss potentially classified information with other members of the Trump cabinet last month.

. . .

In a memo released on Thursday obtained by Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin and others, announced a probe into Hegseth over a discussion about attacking Houthi targets in Yemen on the commercial app.

Here is Stebbin’s memo:

The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are initiating the subject evaluation. We are conducting this evaluation in response to a March 26, 2025 letter I received from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requesting that I conduct an inquiry into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense’s use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025.

The objective of this evaluation is to 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. Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements. We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds. We plan to perform this evaluation in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency “Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation.”

Third news item

Vice-President Vance on the tariffs:

“Look, one bad day in the stock market compared to what President Trump said earlier today — and I think he’s right about this — we’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America,” Vance said.

He continued: “The people on Wall Street have done well. We want them to do well. But we care the most about American workers and about American small businesses. And they’re the ones who are really going to benefit from these policies.”

Vance reiterated Trump’s comparison of the US economy to a “patient who was very sick” and has had an operation and “now it’s time to make the patient better.”

One bad day???? Hahahahaha!

And about Russia being left off the tariff list:

A White House official told The Hill in a statement that the four nations “are not subject to the Reciprocal Tariff Executive Order because they are already facing extremely high tariffs, and our previously imposed sanctions preclude any meaningful trade with these countries.”

The official added that Trump has “recently threatened to impose strong sanctions on Russia” to further explain leaving out Moscow.

Fourth news item

Are Republican members of Congress going to do something to stop these tariffs:

The fallout from President 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.

. . .

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a Trump ally who is third in line to the presidency, introduced a bill with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on Thursday that would reassert Congress’ authority and slap restrictions on the president’s power to levy tariffs.

The legislation, called the Trade Review Act of 2025, would require the president to notify Congress of new tariffs within 48 hours of imposition, while providing his reasons and an analysis of the impacts on American consumers and businesses. Then Congress would have 60 days to approve it. If it does not, the tariffs would expire after that period.

This guy talks a good game but doesn’t seem to realize that he is a sitting member of Congress and can do something about the problem. Maybe try signing Grassley-Cantwell’s bill:

TED CRUZ: “I am not a fan of tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on consumers.” pic.twitter.com/U5MF5jJFGr

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) April 3, 2025

Fifth news item

Lithuanians honored the four American soldiers that died during military exercises:

Lithuania held a farewell ceremony for the four American soldiers who died during a military exercise in March. Mourners gathered in Vilnius on April 3 for the procession before the bodies were taken to the airport and returned to the United States. @CurrentTimeTv pic.twitter.com/vLKVPOXKlZ

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) April 3, 2025

The Lithuanians turned out in large numbers to show their respect:

Lithuania’s political and religious leaders joined thousands of people on Thursday to bid farewell to four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in the Baltic nation.

President Gitanas Nausėda and other dignitaries were among those who stood in respect as hearses carried the bodies of the four young Americans to Vilnius airport before being flown to the United States for burial.

Beautiful.

And then there is this guy:

Trump won’t be present today for the dignified transfer of four U.S. soldiers at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

Instead, he’ll be attending a LIV Golf dinner reception in Florida.

The White House and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on which administration officials might be in attendance.

Remember, this is the same guy that told us years ago that he doesn’t like “losers,” and “suckers” (like four dead soldiers).

Sixth news item

We knew it was coming:

China said on Friday it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the United States from April 10, making good on a promise to strike back after US President Donald Trump escalated a global trade war.

On Wednesday, Trump unveiled an additional 34% tariffs on all Chinese goods imported into the US, in a move poised to cause a major reset of relations and worsen trade tension between the world’s two largest economies.

“This practice of the US is not in line with international trade rules, seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice,” China’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement announcing its retaliatory tariffs.

Remember what the White House spokesperson said: Karoline Leavitt. . .confirms that the 34 percent tariff on China is ON TOP of the previous 20 percent. So that means the rate on China will be *54* percent when these tariffs take effect.

Seventh news item

Can we please stop with the bullshit:

The US will know “in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace” in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.

“We will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether it’s a delay tactic”

This isn’t rocket science: If Russia was truly interested in peace (and not conquering a neighboring sovereign nation), they would leave Ukraine, including the occupied territories, and work to return all abducted Ukrainian children back to their homeland. And then they would never invade Ukraine again. If they were really interested in peace, that is. . .

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

It’s certainly true that every sitting president necessarily has their chief of staff and cabinet of advisors tasked with guiding, strategizing, and providing the best direction to the president about any given situation. And then there are advisors who aren’t part of the president’s cabinet nor any part of the administration. These are people that are close to the president and have his ear. In Trump’s case, nutcase Laura Loomer is one such advisor. She has the president’s ear and has some degree of influence over the decisions he makes. And that influence, apparently, includes the hiring and firing of individuals that she determines to have been disloyal to the president:

The White House has fired at least three National Security Council staffers, three sources familiar with the move told CNN.

The firings came after Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once claimed 9/11 was an inside job, urged President Donald Trump during a Wednesday meeting to get rid of several members of his National Security Council staff, including his principal deputy national security adviser, claiming that they are disloyal. One of the sources said the firings were a direct result of the meeting with Loomer.

About the officials fired:

The three officials fired include Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence and a former top staffer for now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Senate Intelligence Committee; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs who previously served as Waltz’s legislative director in Congress; and David Feith, a senior director overseeing technology and national security who served in the State Department during Trump’s first administration.

Lucky Mike Waltz, he still has his job despite his terrible and unlawful breach of national security (Signalgate). . .all because he loves him some Trump.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

If Bill Clinton could challenge the meaning of “is,” then surely it behooves us to challenge the meaning of “liberation,” since it’s being used to rally the American people. yet I’m certainly not seeing it:

President Trump on Wednesday announced a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports from all foreign countries, as well as higher tariff rates for dozens of nations that the White House deemed the “worst offenders” when it came to trade barriers.

The 10 percent tariff will go into effect on Friday. About 60 countries facing a higher reciprocal tariff will see those rates go into effect on April 9 at 12:01 a.m. Trump also announced a 25 percent tariff on all foreign-made automobiles that will take effect at 12:01 a.m. April 3.

. . .

“***This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in America’s history,” Trump said. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”

Claiming he could have gone with a higher amount on countries with reciprocal tariffs (China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India, South Korea, Thailand, Switzerland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and the European Union), Trump said he didn’t want to create too much of a hardship. The formula for these countries “will be calculated by combining the rate of tariffs and non-monetary barriers like currency manipulation, then divided in half.”

Re China:

Karoline Leavitt. . .confirms that the 34 percent tariff on China is ON TOP of the previous 20 percent. So that means the rate on China will be *54* percent when these tariffs take effect.

The White House has published an explainer about why Trump believes the tariffs are a good thing for America.

I can’t even. . .

Off the top of his head, read it and weep:

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs:

1) Impose hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on Americans without public/congressional input

2) Are based on secret calculations that have little, if any, connection to actual foreign trade barriers

3) Ignore all US tariff/non-tariff barriers, which in some cases are quite high

4) Are justified by a “national emergency” that reflects a total misunderstanding of how trade deficits work

5) Disregard US trade agreement commitments, including ones made by Trump himself

6) Will make us all poorer, and likely do real & lasting harm to the US economy (incl in manufacturing)

7) Embolden our adversaries around the world

Higher taxes, more trade wars, unilateral tax hikes, etc. I ask you, liberate us from what?

P.S. Isn’t is just a bit on the nose that Russia is not on the White House list, while Ukraine is:

FULL LIST: Liberation Day pic.twitter.com/ZBiRuJBCAr

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 2, 2025

(*** – Let’s just bookmark this for later. . .)

-Dana

[guest post by Dana]

This *should* be surprising, and in a normal administration it would be. But normal is not what we currently have:

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.

. . .

“Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal,” said one of the people. All four were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the private chats.

. . .

“It was commonplace to stand up chats on any given national security topic,” said one of the people involved in the chats, adding that the groups often included Cabinet members and high- level staff.

The report makes clear that Signal is an “approved method of communicating. . .it is one of a host of approved methods for unclassified material with the understanding that a user must preserve the record[.]”

As you know, Trump called Signalgate a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” and in fact, came out and said that he didn’t know anything about Signal, and suggested if might be a “defective platform”.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Signal threads discussed “brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine, and military operations.

There is also the issue of Waltz and his staff using Gmail for government communications:

A senior Waltz aide used Gmail “for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict,” The Washington Post wrote.

The Post said it reviewed the emails. “While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show,” the report said.

Waltz himself “had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, said officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what they viewed as problematic handling of information,” the report said. “The officials said Waltz would sometimes copy and paste from his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.”

Eight days ago, Mike Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for Signalgate, as he “built the group”. Does Waltz survive this latest revelation?

Raskin: Would it be problem for it to be standard practice to conduct sensitive foreign policy on a signal chat group… It just came out that Waltz’s team set up 20 signal group chats for crises across the world… I’m sure this will raise the question on whether or not he should… pic.twitter.com/oSNH0FyzgD

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

I really hope that Trump is aware of this because it is clearly not the behavior of a leader who is ready for a ceasefire, let alone ending the war:

President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia’s highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.

The spring call-up for a year’s nap military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Heads definitely not rolling, no formal investigation, no one fired, case closed, per White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

“As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team, and this case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned. There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again, and we’re moving forward; and the president and Mike Waltz, and his entire national security team, have been working together very well if you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team.”

Now we know how seriously this White House takes an egregious breach of security where American troops could have been put at risk.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Exactly why can’t he be brought home?:

The Trump administration conceded in a court filing Monday that it mistakenly deported a Maryland father to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” and argued it could not return him because he’s now in Salvadoran custody.

Background:

The filing stems from a lawsuit over the removal of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who in 2019 was granted protected status by an immigration judge, prohibiting the federal government from sending him to El Salvador.

The filing, first reported by The Atlantic, appears to mark the first time the administration has admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador, which are now at the center of a fraught legal battle.

“On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the Trump administration filing states.

Here is some added context from the court filings, which still doesn’t change the fact that an individual with protected status was deported back to the very country he was legally protected from being sent to:

The man is an illegal migrant from El Salvador. In 2019, ICE presented sufficient evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang for an immigration judge to deny him bond and order his removal.

However, he then filed an asylum claim and obtained a withholding of removal order under the convention against torture. Essentially, he argued that despite his being here illegally and likely being a gang member based on the previous finding, he could be tortured if sent back to El Salvador. Such an order could still allow the government to deport him, but not to his home country, at least not without first contesting the order.

He has been using that order since 2019 to avoid deportation.

Some government attorneys have reportedly been shocked by what happened to Albrego Garcia. There is a separate procedure to follow in the courts if the government wants to deport an individual with protected status.

Government attorneys said that the deportation was an “oversight,” but one done in “good faith.” So I guess that makes it okay. /sarc.

This is a horrible consequence of the administration rushing through these deportations without any oversight necessary accountability.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

This should have never been terminated in the first place, but it’s good to see that the bipartisan outcry of disapproval had a positive impact on Trump:

The Trump administration reversed its decision to terminate a U.S. initiative that documented alleged Russian war crimes on Thursday following reporting by The Washington Post and other media outlets, according to U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter.

. . .

The temporary policy reversal, which has not been previously reported, gives the observatory authorization and funding for six additional weeks to complete the transfer of its repository to the European Union’s law enforcement agency, EUROPOL, to assist in the prosecution of crimes inside and outside Ukraine.

This must be reversed in the long term, not just the short term. As a reminder, President Zelensky has said that the return of abducted Ukrainian children must be part of any agreement to stop the war.

I wrote about the funding cut of the program here.

Second news item

Horrible: Russian scientist protests Putin and war in Ukraine,ends up in ICE detention:

A Russian scientist from Harvard Medical School has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to her friends and colleagues.

On Wednesday, Cora Anderson, who works with the Russian scientist Kseniia Petrova, shared the news of Petrova’s detention on Facebook, saying the Russian scientist arrived at Boston Logan international airport on 16 February from a trip to France when she was stopped by US authorities.

According to Anderson, authorities revoked Petrova’s visa and told her that she was to be deported to Russia. In response, Petrova said that she feared political persecution and was instead sent by authorities to a detention facility, Anderson said.

“We had no idea initially what had happened to her since she was unable to send any messages or make any calls upon detention. She was moved to a facility in Vermont at first and then Louisiana where she is now. Where she is now is a jail that has space rented by ICE and is kept in a room with over 80 other female detainees,” Anderson wrote in her Facebook post…

Petrova’s boss, Leon Peshkin, said in an interview on Thursday that the researcher had good reason to fear being returned to Russia because she had publicly protested the Russian invasion of Ukraine in its first days, called for the impeachment of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and was arrested. She managed to flee, first to the former Soviet republic of Georgia and then to the United States, to continue her research on genomes.

Third news item

This is great:

Thousands of Palestinians marched between the wreckage of a heavily destroyed town in northern Gaza on Wednesday in the second day of anti-war protests, with many chanting against Hamas in a rare display of public anger against the militant group.

The protests, which centered mainly on Gaza’s north, appeared to be aimed generally against the war, with protesters calling for an end to 17 months of deadly fighting with Israel that has made life in Gaza insufferable.

But protesters also leveled unusually direct and public criticism of Hamas, which has quashed dissent violently in the past in Gaza, a territory it still rules months into the war with Israel.

As one protester said, “we have nothing to lose, we’ve already lost everything.”

Fourth news item

Oh:

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to carry out swift deportations.

The emergency application marks the first time that the high court has been asked to get involved in the high-profile case after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking deportation flights under the rarely invoked statute.

“This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country—the President, through Article II, or the Judiciary, through TROs,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the application.
“The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice,” she continued.

Fifth news item

Not a problem, apparently. How that is, I just don’t know:

Tech billionaire and White House adviser Elon Musk will head to Wisconsin days before the pivotal state Supreme Court election there, into which he’s sunk millions of dollars on behalf of the conservative candidate and become a central figure in the race.

Musk made the announcement early Friday morning on his social media platform X, where he said he would be giving out a pair of $1 million checks to people who attend his speech, with attendance limited to those who voted in the election.

Sixth news item

Well, well, well:

NBC News report identifies a similar instance in which a career DHS staffer is facing severe punishment for accidentally adding a journalist to an email about ICE raids.

It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)

But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it “all a witch hunt.”

One would think that the higher the rank and the more serious the error, the more serious the consequences. At least, one would think.

Seventh news item

Another law firm opts to roll over to the administration:

President Donald Trump said Friday that the large law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services during the Trump administration and to take other steps that align with the president’s concerns about hiring.

The agreement, which Trump called “essentially a settlement,” allows Skadden, Arps to avoid becoming the sixth elite law firm to be targeted by an executive order from Trump imposing various punishments.

Note: Three targeted law firms, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Perkins Coie have sued the Trump administration over the president’s executive orders targeting them.

Have a good weekend.

—Dana