The Conversation -- May 3, 2025

Independent: "... Donald Trump has posted an AI-generated image of himself in papal regalia, just 11 days after Pope Francis' death. The image, posted on Truth Social, shows ... Trump dressed in white wearing a papal hat ... with a large crucifix hanging around his neck. It comes after the president joked that he'd like to be the pontiff when asked who he would like to succeed Pope Francis. He said to reporters on the White House lawn: 'I'd like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.'" Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Marie: I'm not a very religious person, but I find this image disrectful to Francis's memory, to his admirers, and to Roman Catholics who revered him as the holiest of men. The Hitler image, on the other hand, seems quite appropriate. ~~~

~~~ Amanda Taub of the New York Times: "First developed by a German lawyer named Ernst Fraenkel in the 1930s, the dual-state theory posits that authoritarianism can take hold in small pockets, even while the broader legal system appears to function more or less normally.... 'You can have a world in which there's the ordinary law that most people benefit from,' said Aziz Huq, a law professor at the University of Chicago who recently wrote about the dual-state theory for The Atlantic. 'But running alongside that is this kind of legal abyss in which people fall, and never get out of.'... Today, scholars say, the Trump administration appears to be claiming the right to create its own legal abyss.... Some of the most vulnerable targets have already been swallowed up. And if left unchecked, the legal abyss can grow ever wider." This is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You have to admit that the "dual state theory" fits well into Trump's general world view; that is, that he is not subject to rules that apply to everybody else; similarly, he can defame us, deprive us of property or human rights or whatever, but if we so much as criticize his actions, we may be guilty of (and punishable for) treason. There exists in his mind a double standard in which he, and he alone, is above the law. His cronies may enjoy the benefit of that double standard, too, but their privilege is transitory and conditional; he can and will grant or rescind it on a whim.

Australia. Victoria Kim & Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia has won a second term, completing a stunning turnaround for his governing center-left Labor Party that trailed in the polls for months as a festering cost-of-living crisis weighed on voters. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation ... called the election for Mr. Albanese just a half-hour after the last polls closed on Saturday. It was a resounding defeat of the conservative opposition led by Peter Dutton. He began the campaign riding dissatisfaction with the status quo, but was hamstrung by a string of missteps and an association with some of ... [Donald] Trump's messaging and policies. Mr. Dutton, the leader of the Liberal Party, also lost his parliamentary seat in the conservative stronghold of Queensland, which he had held since 2001. His loss echoed the ouster of Canada's conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, whose defeat was seen as a rejection of his embrace of Mr. Trump." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As Ken writes, it looks like Trump has elected yet another liberalish world leader who -- were it not for Trumpleblunders -- likely would have lost his election.

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Jeff Stein & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The White House released a partial budget proposal Friday calling for $163 billion in cuts to federal spending in the next fiscal year, pushing reductions to health care, education and many other government programs while boosting spending on defense and homeland security. The White House's 2026 fiscal budget plan would codify for next year many of the spending cuts already unilaterally implemented this year by ... Donald Trump or ... Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service. The administration has struggled to convince Republicans in Congress to enshrine even a small portion of those cuts into law, and the courts have also ordered the White House to resume much of the spending, leaving the fate of the changes unclear for now." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: Donald "Trump's budget drew harsh criticism on Friday from a trio of powerful Republican senators, who rejected what they said were woefully inadequate resources for the military, and suggested they would ignore his plan and ensure that Congress provided far more money for their priorities. In separate statements, the senior Republicans -- Senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee; Susan Collins of Maine, the chairwoman of the appropriations committee; and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on defense -- expressed their disdain for Mr. Trump's proposal." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Elon Musk and SpaceX are big winners in Donald J. Trump's 2026 spending plan. [Mr.] Trump is delivering on Mr. Musk's wish list at both NASA and the Pentagon to reorient federal spending on space in a way likely to drive billions of dollars in new business to Mr. Musk's space technology company, if Congress signs off on the budget plan. At the Pentagon, Mr. Trump is calling for a massive jump in spending, an extraordinary 13 percent increase, almost entirely through allocations in a Congressional budget reconciliation plan under consideration. The jump would happen while many other federal agencies would be slashed, in part to supercharge federal spending in two areas where SpaceX is positioned to profit: a vast missile defense system and space missions to Mars and the moon." MB: Oh, please, could we get a huge fleet of Cybertrucks, too. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Two of ... [Donald] Trump's favorite targets -- the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- will have their funding cut nearly in half under Mr. Trump's proposed budget, which also wipes out a $4.1 billion program that helps low-income Americans pay their heating and cooling bills. The budget blueprint, released Friday, advances, in hard numbers and biting words, Mr. Trump's assault on the nation's universities and scientific research enterprise. It calls the N.I.H., the world's premier biomedical research agency, 'too big and unfocused,' and proposes to cut its funding to $27 billion from roughly $48 billion.... 'NIH has broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health,' the budget document declares. It goes on to effectively accuse the institutes of funding research that led to the coronavirus pandemic, and says the N.I.H. has 'also promoted radical gender ideology to the detriment of America's youth.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Attack of the Giant Philistine. Michael Paulson of the New York Times: Donald "Trump proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the budget he released Friday, taking aim once again at two agencies that he had tried and failed to get rid of during his first term. The endowments, along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, were among the entities listed in a section titled 'small agency eliminations' in his budget blueprint for the next fiscal year.... Since Mr. Trump returned to office this year, his administration has taken aim at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, canceling most of their existing grants and laying off a large portion of their staffs."

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "The United States imposed 25 percent tariffs on imported auto parts on Saturday that could sharply raise prices for new and used vehicles as well as for repairs and insurance. The latest tariffs, which President Trump ordered in March as part of his plan to promote domestic manufacturing, come after the 25 percent levies on imported cars that took effect in early April. This second round of duties on imported parts will have a broader impact because even cars made in the United States often have engines, transmissions, batteries or other components produced in other countries. The administration said on Tuesday that the tariffs were intended 'to protect national security by incentivizing domestic automobile production and reducing American reliance on imports of foreign automobiles and their parts.'"

Daisuke Wakabayashi & Mike Isaac of the New York Times: "The expansion of the loophole for tariff-free shipments of goods nearly a decade ago gave rise to Temu, Shein and other low-cost online retailers offering items straight from Chinese factories at unfathomable discounts. It also unleashed something else -- a cascade of billions of dollars of digital advertising that provided a windfall for Meta, Alphabet and other technology industry giants. Temu and Shein, jockeying for the attention of American shoppers, blanketed seemingly every inch of the internet with their ads. In the last two years, only Amazon spent more on online advertising in the United States than Shein or Temu. Now, the advertising bonanza might be coming to an end after the demise of the shipping loophole that spurred it.... 'They've already pulled back their advertising pretty heavily,' [an e-commerce analyst] said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yesterday we learned that Tim Apple had told analysts that Trump tariffs would cost Apple $900MM. Now this. So giving Trump a million dollars -- as Apple, Google & Meta did -- is just not enough of a bribe. They shoulda known. BTW, Congress could stop all this NOW. But most Congressional Republicans won't budge. They'd rather you had to pay more for a new car and for the insurance you already have on your old cars than risk the wrath of their Lord & Master.

Andrew Duehren, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said on Friday that Harvard would lose its tax-exempt status, repeating his intent to enlist the Internal Revenue Service in his feud with the wealthy research university and upend the school's finances. 'We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!' Mr. Trump wrote on social media. It was not immediately clear if the I.R.S. was in fact moving forward with revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status, a change that could typically occur only after a lengthy process." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "Harvard University signaled Friday that it would resist ... [Donald] Trump's renewed threat to revoke the school's tax-exempt status, a move for which it said there was 'no legal basis' as the president escalated his bitter dispute with the nation's oldest university."

No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue.... In purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: 'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.' -- Judge Beryl Howell, introduction to opinion

Right. Shakespeare put those words in the mouth of one Dick the Butcher, an ignorant, nasty character who was suggesting an expedient way for a rebel pretender to the throne to deal with the problems of governance. As Howell, writes, the rebel leader "promptly assumes the tactic as part of his plan to assume power...." We are back to the Late Middle Ages now. -- Marie

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "A federal judge ruled on Friday that an executive order ... [Donald] Trump signed in March targeting the law firm Perkins Coie was unconstitutional and directed the government not to enforce its terms, which had threatened to upend the firm's business. The ruling was the first time a court had stepped in to permanently bar Mr. Trump from trying to punish a law firm he opposes politically. Skipping a trial and moving directly to a final ruling, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that attempts to bring the firm to heel under the threat of retaliation amounted to unlawful coercion, and imperiled its lawyers' ability to freely practice law." Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ You can read Judge Howell's memorandum opinion here, via the court. The link to her order is here.

Another Loss for Donald Trump's Rolling Spite Program. Sam Levin of the Guardian & Agencies: "The Trump administration has agreed not to freeze funds to Maine schools, a win for a state that was targeted by the president over its support of transgender rights. In a settlement disclosed on Friday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it would halt all efforts to withhold funds for a child nutrition program in Maine. The USDA had suspended those dollars after Maine officials said the state would not comply with Donald Trump's demands that trans girls be barred from participating in girls' sports. In February, when the president directly threatened to revoke funding from the state at a White House meeting with governors, Janet Mills, Maine's Democratic governor, had responded, 'We'll see you in court,' in a widely shared exchange."

Chutzpah is lying to dodge the draft and then asking the Army to celebrate your damn birthday. -- Mrs. Betty Bowers on Bluesky (thanks to laura h. for the link) ~~~

~~~ Olivia George & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's long-held hopes of soldiers marching and armored vehicles rolling down the streets of the nation's capital are moving closer to reality, as the White House confirmed Friday that he intends to host a military parade this summer to commemorate the U.S. Army's 250th birthday. The parade is scheduled for June 14, the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, Trump's 79th birthday.... The parade will accompany a fireworks display and a day-long festival on the National Mall with military demonstrations, musical performances and a fitness competition, [an Army spokesperson] said." MB: Those fireworks, BTW, are made in China, so they will cost us taxpayers 245 percent of what they would have cost before Birthday Boy slapped those tariffs on them.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "As the grave consequences of the administration's policies become apparent, Trump and his lieutenants have retreated to a fantasyland.... As the situation worsens around him, [Trump's] lies seem all the more absurd. He maintained this week that 'gasoline's down' in price (it's flat) and that 'tourism is way up' (it's way down) that 'eggs are down 87 percent' (he seems to make up a new percentage with each telling) and 'groceries are down' (they're up) and that DOGE has 'found hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse' (even Musk's own dubious and double-counted figures don't say that)." (Also linked yesterday.)

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have access to sensitive records of the Social Security Administration. The administration has filed a barrage of such applications in recent weeks, including one in an immigration case on Thursday. Several of them await decisions from the justices, who are also set to hear arguments on May 15 on the scope of permissible injunctions in challenges to ... [Donald] Trump's efforts to do away with birthright citizenship. Mr. Trump and his allies have complained bitterly about lower court judges who have blocked his initiatives...." The AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A couple of days ago, we learned from Julia Angwin in a New York Times op-ed that "DOGE is assembling a sprawling domestic surveillance system for the Trump administration -- the likes of which we have never seen in the United States." So allowing them to get their grubby paws on Social Security data obviously is a really bad idea. (I suspect they already have it and have walked it out of the building.)

Worse Than We Thought. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Attorney General Pam Bondi has rolled back a constraint on leak inquiries that the Justice Department imposed more than a decade ago, making it easier for investigators to get around a legal bar on search warrants to seize news gathering records. The safeguard was imposed in 2013 after the revelation that the F.B.I. had portrayed a Fox News reporter as a criminal to bypass restrictions on seizing reporters' emails. The change was part of a revised regulation Ms. Bondi issued this week involving leak inquiries. Most of the discussion has focused on how investigators can once again use court orders, subpoenas and search warrants to go after reporters' information, ending a flat ban on those tactics imposed in 2021 by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. Essentially, Ms. Bondi returned to the standard in place before Mr. Garland's intervention. But a close reading shows that in doing so, she also deleted a key section of the earlier regulation that had emerged from the Fox News incident. The section had limited the ability of investigators to sidestep a 1980 law that generally bars search warrants for newsroom records."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Justice Department has reached an agreement to settle the wrongful death case brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, lawyers for both sides told a federal judge Friday.... No final deal has been signed and terms have not been disclosed, said Robert Sticht, a lawyer for the conservative group Judicial Watch, which is representing Babbitt's family.... Babbitt's family filed suit in June 2024, saying she had been 'ambushed' by police, and the case had been set for trial in July 2026 before the Justice Department changed course after ... [Donald] Trump returned to office. The settlement would come as Trump has cast Babbitt as a martyr, and sought to rewrite the history of the assault on the Capitol as a heroic act of collective patriotism, not a violent effort to overturn an election." The CBS News story is here. MB: That is, the payoff is yet another cost of the Trump presidency*.

Rubio Takes Side of Nazi-like German Party. Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "A remarkable exchange played out on X on Friday as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the government of key ally Germany of 'tyranny in disguise' for designating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as an extremist entity. In a post Friday afternoon, the top US diplomat slammed the classification made by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, which allows it to increase surveillance of the political party. Vice President JD Vance later echoed the rebuke of the move in his own post on the social media platform. 'Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,' Rubio wrote on his official State Department X account. 'That's not democracy -- it's tyranny in disguise.'... In a direct reply on X more than three hours later, the German Foreign Office pushed back. 'This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law,' the account posted. 'It is independent courts that will have the final say.... We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped,' the foreign office wrote.... [Leaders of] the far-right party .. have engaged in anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and xenophobic rhetoric, including calling for the mass expulsion of immigrants."

Julian Barnes & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. plans to cut more than 1,000 staff positions through attrition over the next few years as the Trump administration shrinks the federal government, according to officials briefed on the plans. The agency does not plan any more mass firings. About 80 recently hired employees were let go in March. The C.I.A. is also firing officers who had worked on diversity issues, although a judge has temporarily halted that effort. For the next rounds of reduction, the agency plans, for now, to use normal attrition, including retirements and resignations." ~~~

~~~ Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. fired its top doctor after she was targeted by far-right activists who have worked to oust government officials they see as disloyal, according to a lawsuit filed Friday evening. Late last year, the C.I.A. recruited the doctor, Terry Adirim, to take a top medical job as the director of the agency's Center for Global Health Services. Within days, Ivan Raiklin, a far-right provocateur, accused her of being the 'architect' of the Pentagon's Covid-19 vaccine mandate. Dr. Adirim, 61, had served in a top medical role in the Defense Department in 2021 when Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III mandated that all service members receive a Covid vaccination. Mr. Raiklin, who has called himself ... [Donald] Trump's 'secretary of retribution,' is a former Green Beret who became an intense critic of the Covid vaccine. He published a 'Deep State Target List' of 350 individuals he accused of treason. According to the suit, Mr. Raiklin also singled out Dr. Adirim for criticism."

Camille Baker of the New York Times: "Five former National Weather Service directors have taken the unusual step of signing onto an open letter warning that cuts to the organization by the Trump administration may soon endanger lives. 'N.W.S. staff will have an impossible task to continue its current level of services,' they write in the letter, dated Friday. 'Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.' Hundreds of Weather Service employees, or about 10 percent of the agency's total staff, have been terminated or accepted buyout offers since ... [Donald] Trump began his second term, according to the letter."

Brennan Leach, et al., of NBC News: "Some Senate Republicans are raising concerns about an exclusive dinner and White House tour ... Donald Trump is offering top investors in his $TRUMP meme token. 'This is my president that we're talking about, but I am willing to say that this gives me pause,' said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming, who has been spearheading a legislative push on cryptocurrency regulation in the Senate.... While using untraceable crypto currency to pay for access to the president raised questions for some senators, there are no laws barring Trump and the organization from proceeding as planned*.... Trump's move generated intense criticism from Senate Democrats. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Adam Schiff, of California, requested an ethics probe into the dinner." ~~~

     ~~~ *Marie: These meme coins are not "crypto currency." More important: It is not true that this particular Trump grift is legal. U.S.. law states that government property cannot be used for personal profit. (And here.) The White House is, of course, government property. This isn't just about an ethics violation; it's about breaking existing law, IMO.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Adam Jentleson, the former chief of staff to Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, was so alarmed with his ex-boss's erratic behavior last year that he wrote a lengthy letter to his doctor warning that the senator was spiraling out of control and that his mental health issues could cost him his life.... Mr. Fetterman's behavior, according to former aides who are still connected to his diminishing circle, is still at times a cause of concern. Other former members of his staff, speaking on the condition of anonymity, report that their colleagues sometimes were frightened to be in the senator's presence, if he was in an amped-up mood. They have also long been warned never to get in a car if Mr. Fetterman is behind the wheel because of his dangerous driving habits. His volatile and concerning behavior, which aides noticed last year was taking a turn for the worse, has only increased since the election, people who have spent time with him said. That has coincided with a period when his politics have become more conservative.... Mr. Fetterman said in a statement that 'my ACTUAL doctors and my family affirmed that I'm very well.'"

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "In a little-noticed lawsuit filed last week, the America First Legal Foundation sued Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. The case ostensibly proceeds as a FOIA lawsuit, with the Trump-aligned group seeking access to judiciary records. But, in doing so, it asks the courts to cede massive power to the White House: the bodies that make court policy and manage the judiciary's day-to-day operations should be considered independent agencies of the executive branch, the suit argues, giving the President, under the conservative legal movement's theories, the power to appoint and dismiss people in key roles. Multiple legal scholars and attorneys TPM spoke with reacted to the suit with a mixture of dismay, disdain and laughter. Though the core legal claim is invalid, they said, the suit seems to be a part of the fight that the administration launched and has continued to escalate against the courts.... Stephen Miller, the longtime Trump aide, founded the America First Legal Foundation in April 2021, describing it as the 'long-awaited answer to the ACLU.'"

Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "The US supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson condemned the Trump administration's attacks on the judiciary in a cutting speech at a judicial conference on Thursday evening. Without mentioning Donald Trump by name, Jackson spoke of 'the elephant in the room' and rhetoric from the White House 'designed to intimidate the judiciary'. ' Across the nation, judges are facing increased threats of not only physical violence, but also professional retaliation just for doing our jobs,' said Jackson, according to the New York Times. 'And the attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate  those of us who serve in this critical capacity.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Jackson's unusually pointed comments received a standing ovation from the judges and lawyers in attendance. Her 18-minute fulmination is the strongest public statement by any member of the Supreme Court since the Trump administration began denouncing judges who have blocked Trump's policies...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Christine Chung of the New York Times: "... disruptions [at Newark Airport over the past week], which stretched into Friday with delays averaging over two hours, have highlighted ongoing air traffic control staffing issues. The troubles prompted United Airlines, Newark's largest carrier, to cut nearly three dozen round-trip flights per day at the hub beginning this weekend, the carrier's chief executive, Scott Kirby, announced on Friday."

Mark Walker of the New York Times: "Federal transportation safety officials were investigating on Friday after two commercial flights aborted landings because an Army helicopter had entered the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where helicopter traffic has been restricted since a fatal collision in January."

The Conversation -- May 2, 2025

Jeff Stein & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The White House released a partial budget proposal Friday calling for $163 billion in cuts to federal spending in the next fiscal year, pushing reductions to health care, education and many other government programs while boosting spending on defense and homeland security. The White House's 2026 fiscal budget plan would codify for next year many of the spending cuts already unilaterally implemented this year by ... Donald Trump or billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service. The administration has struggled to convince Republicans in Congress to enshrine even a small portion of those cuts into law, and the courts have also ordered the White House to resume much of the spending, leaving the fate of the changes unclear for now. ~~~

~~~ Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: Donald "Trump's budget drew harsh criticism on Friday from a trio of powerful Republican senators, who rejected what they said were woefully inadequate resources for the military, and suggested they would ignore his plan and ensure that Congress provided far more money for their priorities. In separate statements, the senior Republicans -- Senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee; Susan Collins of Maine, the chairwoman of the appropriations committee; and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on defense -- expressed their disdain for Mr. Trump's proposal." ~~~

~~~ Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Elon Musk and SpaceX are big winners in Donald J. Trump's 2026 spending plan. [Mr.] Trump is delivering on Mr. Musk's wish list at both NASA and the Pentagon to reorient federal spending on space in a way likely to drive billions of dollars in new business to Mr. Musk's calling for a massive jump in spending, an extraordinary 13 percent increase, almost entirely through allocations in a Congressional budget reconciliation plan under consideration. The jump would happen while many other federal agencies would be slashed, in part to supercharge federal spending in two areas where SpaceX is positioned to profit: a vast missile defense system and space missions to Mars and the moon." MB: Oh, please, couldn't we get a huge fleet of Cybertrucks, too? ~~~

~~~ Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Two of ... [Donald] Trump's favorite targets -- the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- will have their funding cut nearly in half under Mr. Trump's proposed budget, which also wipes out a $4.1 billion program that helps low-income Americans pay their heating and cooling bills. The budget blueprint, released Friday, advances, in hard numbers and biting words, Mr. Trump's assault on the nation's universities and scientific research enterprise. It calls the N.I.H., the world's premier biomedical research agency, 'too big and unfocused,' and proposes to cut its funding to $27 billion from roughly $48 billion.... 'NIH has broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health,' the budget document declares. It goes on to effectively accuse the institutes of funding research that led to the coronavirus pandemic, and says the N.I.H. has 'also promoted radical gender ideology to the detriment of America's youth.'"

Andrew Duehren, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said on Friday that Harvard would lose its tax-exempt status, repeating his intent to enlist the Internal Revenue Service in his feud with the wealthy research university and upend the school's finances. 'We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!' Mr. Trump wrote on social media. It was not immediately clear if the I.R.S. was in fact moving forward with revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status, a change that could typically occur only after a lengthy process."

Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "The US supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson condemned the Trump administration's attacks on the judiciary in a cutting speech at a judicial conference on Thursday evening. Without mentioning Donald Trump by name, Jackson spoke of 'the elephant in the room' and rhetoric from the White House 'designed to intimidate the judiciary'. ' Across the nation, judges are facing increased threats of not only physical violence, but also professional retaliation just for doing our jobs,' said Jackson, according to the New York Times. 'And the attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate  those of us who serve in this critical capacity.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Jackson's unusually pointed comments received a standing ovation from the judges and lawyers in attendance. Her 18-minute fulmination is the strongest public statement by any member of the Supreme Court since the Trump administration began denouncing judges who have blocked Trump's policies...."

Chutzpah is lying to dodge the draft and then asking the Army to celebrate your damn birthday. -- Mrs. Betty Bowers on Bluesky (thanks to laura h. for the link)

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "As the grave consequences of the administration's policies become apparent, Trump and his lieutenants have retreated to a fantasyland.... As the situation worsens around him, [Trump's] lies seem all the more absurd. He maintained this week that 'gasoline's down' in price (it's flat) and that 'tourism is way up' (it's way down) that 'eggs are down 87 percent' (he seems to make up a new percentage with each telling) and 'groceries are down' (they're up) and that DOGE has 'found hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse' (even Musk's own dubious and double-counted figures don't say that)."

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Orlando Mayorquin, et al., of the New York Times: "... this year, [May Day] demonstrations in the United States were supercharged with the breadth of the anti-Trump movement, as outcry continued to grow over the president's agenda and expansion of executive power. Protesters denounced the administration's effort to roll back workers' rights -- a particular sore spot on a day dedicated to celebrating organized labor -- as well as plans to cut education funding and carry out mass deportations.... A rally in Los Angeles began early on Thursday and focused largely on rights of migrants, who in California also make up the ranks of workers.... The police closed streets for the crowds in major cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington. But protesters also rallied in small communities that voted overwhelmingly for ... [Donald] Trump, including Norman, Okla.; Sauk City, Wis.; and Hendersonville, N.C." ~~~

Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "For the crowd of hundreds assembled outside the White House on Thursday afternoon, the message displayed on a large banner onstage seemed to sum it all up: 'Worker Rights, Immigrant Rights.' 'May Day is our day,' Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of the union 32BJ SEIU, said while standing in front of the banner. 'This day was born out of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice, where workers refuse to be treated like machines.' That connection between immigrants and labor unions was highlighted again and again by a mix of labor leaders and left-leaning Democrats in Congress at the rally. Immigrant labor, they said, was what made the country run and operate -- and what was increasingly under attack as ... Donald Trump has tried to deliver on his campaign promise of mass deportations." ~~~

~~~ The Well-dressed Protester. Santul Nerkar of the New York Times: "About 1,500 demonstrators, many of them lawyers sporting business attire, jammed the plaza outside Manhattan's federal courthouse as part of the National Law Day of Action, chanting in favor of the rule of law and hoisting pocket Constitutions to the sky. It was one of around 50 similar actions around the nation on Thursday, led by lawyers who said ... [Donald] Trump was threatening the foundation of America's legal system.... In his second term, Mr. Trump has aimed to hobble elite law firms, threatened to impeach judges and ignored their orders. For many in the profession, his actions have presented an unpalatable choice between compromising their values by staying silent and facing professional risk by speaking out."

New York Times Editors: "The first 100 days of President Trump's second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts, in which he and his appointees can override written law when they want to. It is precisely the autocratic approach that this nation's founders sought to prevent when writing the Constitution. Mr. Trump has the potential to do far more harm in the remainder of his term.... The patriotic response to today's threat is to oppose Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump has attacked at least five pillars of American democracy in his first 100 days: Separation of powers.... Due process.... Equal justice under law.... Free speech and freedom of the press.... Government for the people." It appears the Times is publishing its own editorial with a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Somebody on JayDee's staff wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post which a Jeff Bezos employee titled, "What President Trump achieved in his first 100 days." MB: I didn't read a word of the op-ed but here's a link to it. Firewalled. Wouldn't you think one of the richest people in the world could afford to let you read his little vanity publication for free? An astute observer of Orban's Hungary told MSNBC's Alex Wagner she wouldn't be surprised if Jeff deep-sixed the Post altogether, the better to please Dictator Don, in the same way he dropped consideration of the "tariff" line from Amazon's itemized statements the moment Don complained about the proposal.

Erica Green of the New York Times: "On Thursday night..., [Donald] Trump addressed the 2025 graduates of the University of Alabama, vacillating between campaign rally material and a commencement speech as he used his past political grievances to encourage students to fight for their futures.... Even in a college town, Mr. Trump was in relatively friendly territory in the heavily Republican state, which he carried easily in all three of his presidential bids. But there were protests, and a petition from the University of Alabama Democrats and the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. against Mr. Trump's appearance drew more than 26,000 signatures.... About two miles from Coleman Coliseum, the university's Democrats held a protest joined by former Representative Beto O'Rourke of Texas and former Senator Doug Jones of Alabama.... But Mr. Trump was enthusiastically received by the thousands of attendees at Coleman Coliseum. Mr. Trump's address was part of a 'special ceremony' before 6,000 students begin attending formal graduation ceremonies on Friday. The pre-commencement ceremony was optional for students, and tickets were opened to guests." The AP report is here.

Qasim Nauman of the New York Times: Donald "Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, accusing the outlets of producing biased coverage and 'left-wing propaganda.' Mr. Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds public broadcasters in the United States, to end federal funding for NPR and PBS, to the extent allowed by law. The news outlets only receive a small portion of its funding from Congress, with the rest coming from donors and sponsors. The immediate impact of the order was unclear. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-backed, private entity created by an act of Congress, is funded two years in advance to protect it from political maneuvering. The executive order was the latest move by the Trump administration against what it described as biased public media. The White House released a document accompanying the order on its website, criticizing the two broadcasters' coverage of, among other topics, the Covid-19 pandemic and Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why the father of Dumb & Dumber keeps flogging Joe Biden's son is beyond me. I can't recall that President Biden ever said a word against Junior & Eric, who have been actively aiding and abetting Trump's Operation Corruption, Inc. since Trump began running for office in 2015. AND here's Jimmy Kimmel talking about Don Jr.'s new club -- which costs $500K to join -- that promises access to top White House officials. That, Kimmel reminds us, is exactly what Trump and Republicans accused Hunter Biden of doing: charging for access to a top White House official:

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "The audience ... -- comprised of Republicans, Democrats, and independents -- ... at NewsNation's town hall with ... Donald Trump burst into laughter on Wednesday after Trump said he did not believe he had made any mistakes during his first 100 days in the White House. (Also linked yesterday.)

digby has more barfables from Trump's Cabinet meeting worship service Wednesday. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Friday officially eliminated a loophole that had allowed American shoppers to buy cheap goods from China without paying tariffs. The move will help U.S. manufacturers that have struggled to compete with a wave of low-cost Chinese products, but it has already resulted in higher prices for Americans who shop online. The loophole, called the de minimis rule, allowed products up to $800 to avoid tariffs and other red tape as long as they were shipped directly to U.S. consumers or small businesses. It resulted in a surge of individually addressed packages to the United States, many shipped by air and ordered from rapidly growing e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Huh. For the first time yesterday, I purchases something via Temu. At checkout, where the costs are itemized (product, shipping, sales tax), this notice appeared, "No import charges for all local warehouse items and no extra charges upon delivery." We'll see what happens next. ~~~

     ~~~ Agnes Chang & Pablo Robles of the New York Times: "The result could be immediate and costly: T-shirts, stationery and other low-price products on popular e-commerce sites and elsewhere could shoot up in price as shipping carriers and sellers factor in new import taxes. Packages could be delayed, too, as processing goods becomes much more intensive for customs officials." The price of a $10 T-shirt could go to $28.54 to include added tariffs of 145% & 39.5%. OR it could go to $110, if retailers add a $100 per-package shipping fee. ~~~

     ~~~ Chris Velazco of the Washington Post: "Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly addressed the impact of tariffs on the iPhone maker's business for the first time on an earnings call Thursday, saying they could add $900 million to the company's overall costs. The company faced limited impact from shifting trade policies earlier this year, Cook said, in part because the company was able to 'optimize' its supply chain. The figure is assuming 'current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change' throughout Apple's April-to-June quarter, Cook said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. He also said Apple expects that the majority of iPhones sold in the United States will have India as their country of origin, and that Vietnam will be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods products sold domestically in the current quarter."

Paul Krugman: "... it's important to be clear that the bad [economic] news is all on Trump's head, and we mustn't let him get away with claiming otherwise.... Most of the time presidents have much less impact on the economy than many people believe.... A president's policies usually don't have large economic effects in the first few months of their administration. But Trump's policies have been so extreme that they are already making the economy visibly worse. In particular, expectations of high tariffs began distorting business decisions even before the tariffs went into effect. If you look at the GDP numbers released yesterday, you see a huge surge in imports coupled with a large surge in inventories. Both of these clearly reflected businesses 'front-running' expected tariffs, racing to buy as much from China in particular as they could before the tariffs went into effect.... We're ... already seeing signs of Trump's policies causing broad economic weakness[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Bonus Krugman: In this short post Krugman also (a) knocks the NYT headline writers, (b) insists that "data: is plural, and (c) mocks Trump for "com[ing] out as a critic of consumerism and proponent of the higher, spiritual side of life."

Trump Corruption, International Edition, Ctd. David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business [Zach Witkoff] made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm's digital coins. That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to ... [Donald] Trump's private venture -- one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump's crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government.... Witkoff ... revealed that a so-called stablecoin developed by the [Trump family cryptofirm World Liberty Financial], would be used to complete the transaction between the state-backed Emirati investment firm MGX and Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world. Virtually every detail of Mr. Witkoff's announcement, made during a conference panel with Mr. Trump's ... son [Eric], contained a conflict of interest.

"MGX's use of the World Liberty stablecoin, USD1, brings a Trump family company into business with a venture firm backed by a foreign government. The deal creates a formal link between World Liberty and Binance -- a company that has been under U.S. government oversight since 2023, when it admitted to violating federal money-laundering laws. And the splashy announcement served as an advertisement to crypto investors worldwide about the potential for forming a partnership with a company tied to [Donald] Trump, who is listed as World Liberty's chief crypto advocate." MB: Speaking of all-in-the-family, Zach is the son of Steve Witkoff, Trump's favorite (but inexperienced) international negotiator. (Also linked yesterday.)

This Was the Story Late Yesterday Morning. Adios, Muchachos! Jennifer Jacobs & Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "National security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House, according to multiple sources familiar with their departure. They are expected to leave Thursday, sources say. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.... The president's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is having conversations with some of the National Security Council staff today, sources said. In March, Waltz came under scrutiny after he put together a Signal chat and mistakenly included The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, disclosing discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. Goldberg published his account, and he initially omitted operational details, but after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe denied any classified information had been shared on the chat, Goldberg published that information, too, which included the timing of the strikes and the weapons packages used." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump is ousting his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and another senior member of the White House's foreign policy team, the first significant personnel overhaul of top aides in his second term, according to people familiar with the situation." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ But Later That Same Morning: Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: Donald "Trump said Thursday he is removing Mike Waltz from his role as national security adviser and in the interim replacing him with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump said he's nominating Waltz to instead serve as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. 'From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first,' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. 'I know he will do the same in his new role.' Multiple news outlets reported earlier Thursday that Trump was planning on ousting Waltz as national security adviser, just over a month after the Signal group chat security breach." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Edward Wong of the New York Times: "... Marco Rubio, 53, has accumulated four titles starting with his confirmation as secretary of state on Jan. 20, the same day that Mr. Trump took his oath of office.... Acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration. And now interim national security adviser to ... [Donald] Trump.... Mr. Rubio's appointment to yet another job -- as if he were cloned in a B-grade sci-fi movie -- was so sudden that Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokeswoman, learned about it when a reporter read Mr. Trump's social media post to her during a regular televised news conference." MB: IOW, as it will come as no surprise to you, there is no planning, no coordination, no thought put into even these critical, high-level personnel matters. We're looking at Government by Fleeting Whim. ~~~

     ~~~ Abigail Hauslohner of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats who have complained of a Trump administration impervious to their pleas for oversight and accountability, following recent national security blunders, will soon have the opportunity to interrogate the man at the heart of it all. Michael Waltz, who did not require congressional approval to serve as ... Donald Trump's national security adviser, will need the Senate's approval if he is to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.... The Signal scandal, followed by Waltz's spectacular ouster after three months as national security adviser, sets up a potentially explosive confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." MB: While he was punting on what to do with Waltz, maybe Trump didn't think about the Senate confirmation thingee. Don't be surprised if Waltz becomes the acting ambassador to the U.N. ~~~

     ~~~ Caught on Camera. Michael Birnbaum & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Newly ousted national security adviser Michael Waltz, who came under scrutiny for his usage of the messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, was photographed at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday appearing to use a modified Signal app to conduct official business with Cabinet members and other top ... officials. Parts of several conversations on Waltz's phone were visible in Reuters photographs from the meeting. A message from someone named Rubio ... read '... there is time.' A Tuesday message from someone with the same name as Vice President JD Vance read, 'I have confirmation from my counterpart it's turned off. He is going to be here in ...' It also appeared that Waltz had used Signal's phone functionality to call Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.... The app Waltz was using appeared to be 'TM SGNL,' a modified version of Signal that retains and archives messages so that it is compliant with presidential records preservation requirements.... 'As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones,' White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said."

Marie: If government waste, fraud and abuse trouble you, then the person to look at first is not a NOAA employee launching weather balloons in Maine of a ranger sweeping the forest floor in Wyoming. While it's true that Elon, so far, has wasted more money than has Trump (albeit with Trump's approval), Trump himself has done his share of wasting taxpayer dollars -- and not just in the multi-millions already accrued in expenses associated with his golf outings and other frivolous activities. Here's one example: ~~~

~~~⭐Perry Stein & Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post: "Liz Oyer, the Justice Department's recently fired pardon attorney, made a staggering claim on social media this week: ... Donald Trump's pardons of people convicted of white-collar crimes have cost Americans $1 billion. She arrived at the number by adding up all the money that people who were pardoned allegedly owed in restitution, based on how much they were convicted of stealing. Some pardon recipients had not been sentenced, which means that a judge had not yet ruled on prosecutors' calculations of what they owed back to their victims. At least one pardon recipient had already started paying restitution and could attempt to get that money back. Oyer, who has been outspoken against the Trump administration since her ouster, told The Washington Post that the $1 billion figure highlights the unusually high number of Republican allies convicted of fraud and pardoned by Trump before they served their sentences -- a significant break from the traditional and often protracted pardon application process." ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, And This. Lolita Baldor of the AP: "Detailed Army plans for a potential military parade on ... Donald Trump's birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, The Associated Press has learned. The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated April 29 and 30 and have not been publicly released. They represent the Army's most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element -- a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed. The Army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump's 79th birthday on June 14."

Gosh, it turns out Elon Musk really is proud of being the "DOGEfather." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Pentagon is creating a second expanded military zone at the southwestern border, to be patrolled by U.S. soldiers, in the Trump administration's latest step to militarize the boundary with Mexico to help stem the flow of migrants. The military's Northern Command said in a statement on Thursday evening that it was establishing a narrow strip of land along the southern border of Texas that will become part of Fort Bliss, near El Paso. The strip will be about 63 miles long. Last month, the Pentagon created a 60-foot-wide strip of land along 200 miles of the border between New Mexico and Mexico, effectively turning it into part of a U.S. military base there. Migrants entering the newly designated military installations, or national defense areas, will be considered to be trespassing and can be temporarily detained by U.S. troops until Border Patrol agents arrive, military officials said. A small group of migrants was charged on Monday with crossing into the military zone in New Mexico after an Army helicopter spotted them approaching the border and alerted the Border Patrol."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to let it remove protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants who had been allowed to remain in the United States without risk of deportation under a program known as Temporary Protected Status. In February, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, terminated an 18-month extension of T.P.S. protection that had been granted to Venezuelans by the Biden administration. People affected by the change sued.... In March, Judge Edward M. Chen of the Federal District Court in San Francisco blocked the administration's efforts to remove the protections for Venezuelans while the case moved forward. He said that the plaintiffs had demonstrated they were likely to succeed in showing that Ms. Noem's actions were 'unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus.' Judge Chen found that terminating the initiative would inflict irreparable harm 'on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.' The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the administration's request that it pause Judge Chen's ruling."

⭐Kyle Cheney of Politico: <"... Donald Trump's invocation of a wartime power to summarily deport Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador was 'unlawful,' a federal judge ruled Thursday, blocking the administration from further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The decision from U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., a Trump appointee, is the latest sharp rebuke to one of Trump's most aggressive and high-profile efforts to quickly carry out deportations with little or no due process.... The Alien Enemies Act applies only when the country is facing an armed organized attack, Rodriguez ruled. Trump's claims about Tren de Aragua's activities in the United States fall short of that bar, the judge added." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

Marcie Jones of Wonkette on some of the Homeland Security atrocities: "There've been deaths in custody, at least five that we know of since January 20.... We've got children as young as three being forced to somehow defend themselves in court, because the administration has cut funding for their legal aid. A judge ordered it be restored, but CNN reports that hasn't happened.... More things that are simply outrageous and unacceptable: the family of American citizens who had their house raided in Oklahoma.... And then there's the students, tourists, and more than 200 people who accidentally made a wrong turn in Detroit and found themselves at the Canadian border, and then detained.... In mid-February ICE stopped using body cameras.... The Justice Department has told immigration agents in a secret memo that they can bust into houses and arrest people under the Alien Enemies Act with no warrant.... 'According to sworn declarations filed in court by those detained, Border Patrol agents slashed tires, yanked people out of trucks, threw people to the ground, and called farmworkers 'Mexican bitches'" [because they looked Hispanic].... It's all part of the plan for as much cruelty as possible." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Steve Thomason & Maria Paúl of the Washington Post: "Tennessee state law enforcement officials on Thursday released video footage of a 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego García, the Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March and is still being held in prison there. Abrego García was stopped for speeding by Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers near Cookeville, Tennessee. Police said he was going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone along Interstate 40, according to the video released by the state's Department of Safety & Homeland Security. There were about eight other people inside the SUV, and before the encounter was over police said they suspected Abrego García of carrying undocumented immigrants from Texas to the Maryland area for money. Despite those suspicions, both the officers and Abrego García struck a friendly tone during most of the 1-hour, 22-minute stop.... The stop ... has been highlighted by Trump administration officials as evidence that Abrego García is a dangerous criminal. But he was not arrested or charged with any crime during the encounter."

Minho Kim of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court in Washington ruled on Thursday night that, for now, the Trump administration could continue to withhold money from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, federally funded organizations that provide news coverage to countries with limited press freedoms. In doing so, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily reversed parts of two lower-court rulings from last month that stopped the administration from cutting off funds to the news outlets. The appeals court kept in effect parts of one lower court ruling, which required that Trump officials bring back journalists at Voice of America, another federally funded newsroom, from paid leave and resume its news programming. Unlike Voice of America, which is a government entity, the other three news outlets are private nonprofits that have independent hiring authorities but receive nearly all of their funding from Congress."

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "A federal judge [-- U.S. District Court judge, Otis D. Wright II --] on Wednesday rejected a bid by the Justice Department to free a former F.B.I. informant who had pleaded guilty to lying about Hunter Biden and evading his taxes, saying that nothing about the facts of the case had changed and the man might still flee if released. The longtime informant, Alexander Smirnov, pleaded guilty in December in exchange for a six-year prison sentence, admitting that he had lied to the government when he claimed to have information about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter. Before Mr. Smirnov was charged and eventually admitted his guilt, Republican lawmakers had promoted his false claims about the Bidens in their push to try to impeach President Biden. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Smirnov's allegations were also amplified by the Trump supporter Kash Patel, who is now the director of the F.B.I. Then, in an abrupt reversal this month, the Justice Department that had sent Mr. Smirnov to prison filed court papers seeking to have him released early.... That request was filed under instructions from senior Justice Department officials in Washington, according to people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions." (Also linked yesterday.)

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "When big law firms attacked by ... [Donald] Trump decided to make a deal with him rather than fight, many did so because their leaders feared that clients would abandon a firm caught on the administration's bad side. Now that logic may be getting less compelling. A major company, Microsoft, has dropped a law firm that settled with the administration [-- Simpson Thacher --] in favor of one that is fighting it [-- Jenner & Block].... Microsoft declined to comment on why it changed law firms in a significant case last week, but the switch suggests that a firm that chose to fight the Trump administration could still attract an important client." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump wants nice White Americans to have more babies, but he doesn't care if those babies die in their cribs: ~~~

~~~ Ismael Belkoura of Medill News Service, published by STAT: "The Trump administration has cancelled federal participation in Safe to Sleep, a 30-year campaign to prevent babies from dying in their sleep, STAT and the Medill News Service have learned. The elimination of the National Institutes of Health's role in the program, which helped slash infant deaths in the 2000s, comes at a time when sleep-related deaths among infants have increased. Sudden infant death rates were up nearly 12% between 2020 and 2022, according to the most recent data in a study published in JAMA Pediatrics." MB: I had to sign up to read the article. (Also linked yesterday.)

Somebody Save Us from This Guy! Alexander Tin of CBS News: "Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop new guidance for treating measles with drugs and vitamins, an HHS spokesperson said.... Vaccination is the only way to prevent the highly infectious disease that can cause serious health complications or death in some cases. 'Secretary Kennedy will be enlisting the entire agency to activate a scientific process to treat a host of diseases, including measles, with single or multiple existing drugs in combination with vitamins and other modalities,' the HHS spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. The statement said the CDC effort would involve working with universities 'to develop protocols, conduct testing, and pursue approval for new uses of safe and effective therapeutics that meet the highest scientific standards.' While the CDC is continuing to recommend vaccination 'as the most effective way to prevent the disease,' the statement says they recognize some Americans 'may choose not to vaccinate.'" ~~~

~~~ Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The Department of Health and Human Services has transferred $500 million from research into next-generation COVID-19 vaccines, redirecting the money to a single vaccine project linked to the Trump administration's former acting head of the National Institutes of Health. Multiple federal health officials said they were surprised by the announcement, which bypassed the usual procedures overseen by career scientists at the NIH and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, known as BARDA. Those reviews are intended to ensure that federal research money goes to the projects with the greatest scientific merit.... All of the money is being transferred to an influenza vaccine project called beta-propiolactone or BPL, according to emails seen by CBS News. Two officials said the decision to pour $500 million into a single vaccine platform is unusual, given the limited data on it.... BARDA and NIH officials were ordered to redirect the money to Memoli's research by Noah Miller, a special assistant hired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to emails seen by CBS News. Two officials said it was unusual for a political appointee to handpick a project or researcher to be funded without vetting from career scientists or outside review." ~~~

~~~ The RFKJ Anti-Vax Story Just Got Worse. Christina Jewett& Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced plans to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology, moves that extend his reach deep into vaccine development and raise questions about whether Covid boosters will be available in the fall. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services called the requirement for placebo testing 'a radical departure' from existing standards. But that will depend on how the department defines 'new,' because most new vaccines are already tested either against placebos -- inert substances -- or, in some cases, against vaccines for other diseases. Mr. Kennedy is one of the nation's leading vaccine skeptics[*], and he has been vocal about his disdain for mRNA technology, which was used to develop coronavirus vaccines during the first Trump administration. He once wrote on social media that 'mRNA jabs don't stop infection, don't block transmission, don't block mutants, don't last, don't work at all.'... Mr. Kennedy's announcements on Thursday represent an extraordinary use of his power as secretary to make decisions ordinarily left to career scientists at the F.D.A." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ * Marie: Kennedy is not a vaccine "skeptic"; he's a vaccine denier or anti-vaxxer. And he's something I didn't know: he's also a germ denier. ~~~

~~~ He Thinks He's Got the Vapors. Beth Mole of Ars Technica: "Kennedy's thoughts and actions make a lot more sense when you realize he doesn't believe in a foundational scientific principle: germ theory.... Germ theory is, of course, the 19th-century proven idea that microscopic germs -- pathogenic viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi -- cause disease. It supplanted the leading explanation of disease at the time, the miasma theory, which suggests that diseases are caused by miasma, that is, noxious mists and vapors, or simply bad air arising from decaying matter...." In a book vilifying Dr. Anthony Fauci, Kennedy wrote a chapter touting what he thought was the miasma theory but was more like something called the "terrain" theory which hypothesizes that imbalances in the body's "terrain" (milieu intérieur) cause diseases. In the chapter, Kennedy derides germ theory "as a tool ... the pharmaceutical industry and pushy scientists use to justify selling modern medicines.... In all, the chapter provides a clear explanation of why Kennedy relentlessly attacks evidence-based medicines; vilifies the pharmaceutical industry; suggests HIV doesn't cause AIDS and antidepressants are behind mass shootings; believes that vaccines are harmful, not protective; claims 5G wireless networks cause cancer; suggests chemicals in water are changing children's gender identities; and is quick to promote supplements to prevent and treat diseases." Thanks to laura h. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump would like to take us back to the days before the Civil War when we didn't have those pesky Constitutional Amendments that made Black Americans whole and granted all Americans equal rights. Trump's HHS secretary would like to take us back to the days before the Civil War, because it was in the 1860s that Louis Pasteur and others began proving that diseases are caused by microscopic beasties. That said, I think the real inspiration for Trump, Kennedy, et al., is the Middle Ages; they oppose the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment, from which they may believe (perhaps accurately) that the "radical left" has sprung. They prefer to go back to the days when their "feelings" are determinative, and rational, scientific thought is anathema. If you yell at them, "You can't handle the truth!" it's not a slur. It's a fact.

Four-hundred Pages of Trumpy Prejudice. Azeen Ghorayshi & Amy Harmon of the New York Times: "Federal health officials published a report on Thursday declaring that the use of hormonal and surgical treatments in young people with gender dysphoria lacked scientific evidence and expressing concern about long-term harms, a stark reversal from previous agency recommendations and the advice of top U.S. medical groups. The report instead prioritized the role of psychotherapy, a divisive intervention to treat gender dysphoria that many advocates and physicians have equated with so-called conversion therapy. Other parts of the review seemed to call into question the very notion that some people have a gender identity that does not align with their sex at birth.... In a remarkable departure from the standard for medical evidence reviews, the authors were not identified pending a post-publication review process that would begin in 'the coming days.'...

"In January..., [Donald] Trump signed an executive order titled 'Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation' giving the Department of Health and Human Services 90 days to produce a report on the best practices for treating young people who say their gender does not align with their birth sex.... 'This report misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care,' said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the [American Academy of Pediatrics]. 'The report prioritizes opinions over dispassionate reviews of evidence.'"

Charlie Savage & Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "The Justice Department unveiled a revised regulation for leak investigations on Thursday, restoring the ability of federal investigators to use court orders, warrants and subpoenas to go after reporters' phone records, notes or testimony under certain circumstances. The move by Attorney General Pam Bondi rolls back a policy from her predecessor, Merrick B. Garland ... that flatly banned going after reporters' information in leak investigations. Mr. Garland's policy was a major shift after two decades in which the Justice Department had become increasingly aggressive in prosecuting leaks as crimes, a tactic that was vanishingly rare in the 20th century but became routine in the 21st under administrations of both parties. Mr. Garland changed the policy after the revelation in 2021 that the Justice Department, under Attorney General William P. Barr, had secretly pursued email records of reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN during President Trump's first term. At the time, Mr. Garland said that a flat ban on such tactics was necessary to 'allow journalists to perform the crucial work of informing the public without fear of legal consequences.'"

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "A top Trump appointee in the Justice Department ordered an aggressive investigation in the last several months of student protesters at Columbia University, raising anger and alarm among career prosecutors and investigators who saw the demand as politically motivated and lacking legal merit, people familiar with the episode said. The demand for the inquiry into students who protested Israel's conduct of the conflict in Gaza also prompted pushback from a federal magistrate judge, who believed some of the steps being sought by the official, Emil Bove III, were unjustified and might violate the First Amendment, the people said.... Those types of demands from political appointees at the Justice Department are part of the reason there has been an exodus of lawyers from the [civil rights] division in recent weeks, according to current and former officials."

There are quite a few ways -- some profound and some petty -- the Trump administration can harass a person whom Trump doesn't like. Here's a petty one: ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Chris Krebs, the former cybersecurity official in ... [Donald] Trump's first term whom the president recently targeted for investigation because he had said that the 2020 election had been conducted securely, learned this week that his membership in a program giving travelers expedited status had been revoked. Mr. Krebs received an email on Wednesday alerting him that his status in the Global Entry program had changed, prompting him to log into his account. The program, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, lets people deemed low-risk re-enter the country faster than normal travelers." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Eileen Sullivan, et al., of the New York Times: "Trump administration officials said on Thursday that Chris Krebs, who debunked ... [Donald] Trump's lies about the 2020 election as head of the federal cybersecurity agency, lost his membership in an expedited customs program for travelers because he is facing a federal investigation. The officials declined to specify why Mr. Krebs was under investigation, nor did they indicate which agencies were conducting the inquiry. The disclosure came three weeks after Mr. Trump, in an act of score settling and intimidation, directed the Justice Department to investigate Mr. Krebs." MB: Congrats to the reporters here for stating flat-out that Trump ordered the Krebs investigation as "an act of score settling and intimidation." Only a short time ago, the very best readers could have expected was "an apparent act...." Or, more likely, "in what some say was an act...."

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Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "More than 1,100 people have been arrested in Florida over the past week as part of a sweeping immigration operation involving state and federal law enforcement agents, Department of Homeland Security officials and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Thursday. Federal agents worked with local sheriffs and members of Florida's highway patrol, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and National Guard to apprehend people across the state.... Larry Keefe, who heads Florida's new board of immigration enforcement, said the joint mission ... could be replicated in other states. He said it is the largest immigration operation in Florida history." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I lived in Florida, I wanted the highway patrol patrolling the highways (what a concept!), the fish & game people catching the giant alligators that swam past my house on the Caloosahatchee, and the National Guard helping out after hurricanes. I did not want them chasing after my neighbors who were going about their daily lives without incident.

You Might Be an Okie ... if you expect crazy conspiracy theories to be part of your child's high-school social studies curriculum. ~~~

~~~ Oklahoma. Education, Big-Lie Style. Judd Legum, et al., of Popular Information: "Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to learn about ... [Donald] Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. The lesson will not be part of a course on conspiracy theories, but an official component of the new social studies curriculum created by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R).... In March, Walters said the purpose of this section was to teach 'students to think for themselves' and 'not be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda.' According to Walters, there are 'legitimate concerns' about the integrity of the 2020 election that were 'raised by millions of Americans in 2020.'" (Also linked yesterday.) -100-

May Day 2025

The RFKJ Anti-Vax Story Just Got Worse. Christina Jewett & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced plans to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology, moves that extend his reach deep into vaccine development and raise questions about whether Covid boosters will be available in the fall. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services called the requirement for placebo testing 'a radical departure' from existing standards. But that will depend on how the department defines 'new,' because most new vaccines are already tested either against placebos -- inert substances -- or, in some cases, against vaccines for other diseases. Mr. Kennedy is one of the nation's leading vaccine skeptics[*], and he has been vocal about his disdain for mRNA technology, which was used to develop coronavirus vaccines during the first Trump administration. He once wrote on social media that 'mRNA jabs don't stop infection, don't block transmission, don't block mutants, don't last, don't work at all.'... Mr. Kennedy's announcements on Thursday represent an extraordinary use of his power as secretary to make decisions ordinarily left to career scientists at the F.D.A." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kennedy is not a vaccine "skeptic"; he's a vaccine denier or anti-vaxxer. And he's something I didn't know: he's also a germ denier. ~~~

~~~ He Thinks He's Got the Vapors. Beth Mole of Ars Technica: "Kennedy's thoughts and actions make a lot more sense when you realize he doesn't believe in a foundational scientific principle: germ theory.... Germ theory is, of course, the 19th-century proven idea that microscopic germs -- pathogenic viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi -- cause disease. It supplanted the leading explanation of disease at the time, the miasma theory, which suggests that diseases are caused by miasma, that is, noxious mists and vapors, or simply bad air arising from decaying matter...." In a book vilifying Dr. Anthony Fauci, Kennedy wrote a chapter touting what he thought was the miasma theory but was more like something called the "terrain" theory which hypothesizes that imbalances in the body's "terrain" (milieu intérieur) cause diseases. In the chapter, Kennedy derides germ theory "as a tool ... the pharmaceutical industry and pushy scientists use to justify selling modern medicines.... In all, the chapter provides a clear explanation of why Kennedy relentlessly attacks evidence-based medicines; vilifies the pharmaceutical industry; suggests HIV doesn't cause AIDS and antidepressants are behind mass shootings; believes that vaccines are harmful, not protective; claims 5G wireless networks cause cancer; suggests chemicals in water are changing children's gender identities; and is quick to promote supplements to prevent and treat diseases." Thanks to laura h. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump would like to take us back to the days before the American Civil War when we didn't have those pesky Constitutional Amendments that made Black Americans whole and granted all Americans equal rights. Trump's HHS secretary would like to take us back to the days before the Civil War, because it was in the 1860s that Louis Pasteur and others began proving that diseases are caused by microscopic beasties. That said, I think the real inspiration for Trump, Kennedy, et al., is the Middle Ages; they oppose the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment, from which they believe (perhaps accurately) that the "radical left" has sprung. They prefer to go back to the days when their "feelings" are determinative, and rational, scientific thought is anathema. If you yell at them, "You can't handle the truth!" it's not a slur. It's a fact.

Adios, Muchachos! Jennifer Jacobs & Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "National security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House, according to multiple sources familiar with their departure. They are expected to leave Thursday, sources say. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.... The president's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is having conversations with some of the National Security Council staff today, sources said. In March, Waltz came under scrutiny after he put together a Signal chat and mistakenly included The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, disclosing discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. Goldberg published his account, and he initially omitted operational details, but after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe denied any classified information had been shared on the chat, Goldberg published that information, too, which included the timing of the strikes and the weapons packages used." ~~~

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump is ousting his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and another senior member of the White House's foreign policy team, the first significant personnel overhaul of top aides in his second term, according to people familiar with the situation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is why you never want to give up your day job for a job in a Trump administration. (Waltz was a U.S. Congressman when he quit to become Trump's NSA.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Wait! Wait! The whole story is all different! Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: Donald "Trump said Thursday he is removing Mike Waltz from his role as national security adviser and in the interim replacing him with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump said he's nominating Waltz to instead serve as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. 'From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first,' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. 'I know he will do the same in his new role.' Multiple news outlets reported earlier Thursday that Trump was planning on ousting Waltz as national security adviser, just over a month after the Signal group chat security breach."

⭐Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump's invocation of a wartime power to summarily deport Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador was 'unlawful,' a federal judge ruled Thursday, blocking the administration from further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The decision from U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., a Trump appointee, is the latest sharp rebuke to one of Trump's most aggressive and high-profile efforts to quickly carry out deportations with little or no due process.... The Alien Enemies Act applies only when the country is facing an armed, organized attack, Rodriguez ruled. Trump's claims about Tren de Aragua's activities in the United States fall short of that bar, the judge added."

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "A federal judge [-- District Court judge, Otis D. Wright II --] on Wednesday rejected a bid by the Justice Department to free a former F.B.I. informant who had pleaded guilty to lying about Hunter Biden and evading his taxes, saying that nothing about the facts of the case had changed and the man might still flee if released. The longtime informant, Alexander Smirnov, pleaded guilty in December in exchange for a six-year prison sentence, admitting that he had lied to the government when he claimed to have information about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter. Before Mr. Smirnov was charged and eventually admitted his guilt, Republican lawmakers had promoted his false claims about the Bidens in their push to try to impeach President Biden. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Smirnov's allegations were also amplified by the Trump supporter Kash Patel, who is now the director of the F.B.I. Then, in an abrupt reversal this month, the Justice Department that had sent Mr. Smirnov to prison filed court papers seeking to have him released early.... That request was filed under instructions from senior Justice Department officials in Washington, according to people familiar...."

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "When big law firms attacked by ... [Donald] Trump decided to make a deal with him rather than fight, many did so because their leaders feared that clients would abandon a firm caught on the administration's bad side. Now that logic may be getting less compelling. A major company, Microsoft, has dropped a law firm that settled with the administration [-- Simpson Thacher --] in favor of one that is fighting it [-- Jenner & Block].... Microsoft declined to comment on why it changed law firms in a significant case last week, but the switch suggests that a firm that chose to fight the Trump administration could still attract an important client."

Trump Corruption, International Edition, Ctd. David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business [Zach Witkoff] made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm's digital coins. That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to ... [Donald] Trump's private venture -- one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump's crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government.... Witkoff ... revealed that a so-called stablecoin developed by the [Trump family cryptofirm World Liberty Financial], would be used to complete the transaction between the state-backed Emirati investment firm MGX and Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world. Virtually every detail of Mr. Witkoff's announcement, made during a conference panel with Mr. Trump's ... son [Eric], contained a conflict of interest.

"MGX's use of the World Liberty stablecoin, USD1, brings a Trump family company into business with a venture firm backed by a foreign government. The deal creates a formal link between World Liberty and Binance -- a company that has been under U.S. government oversight since 2023, when it admitted to violating federal money-laundering laws. And the splashy announcement served as an advertisement to crypto investors worldwide about the potential for forming a partnership with a company tied to [Donald] Trump, who is listed as World Liberty's chief crypto advocate." MB: Speaking of all-in-the-family, Zach is the son of Steve Witkoff, Trump's favorite (but inexperienced) international negotiator.

There are quite a few ways -- some profound and some petty -- the Trump administration can harass a person whom Trump doesn't like. Here's a petty one: ~~~

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Chris Krebs, the former cybersecurity official in ... [Donald] Trump's first term whom the president recently targeted for investigation because he had said that the 2020 election had been conducted securely, learned this week that his membership in a program giving travelers expedited status had been revoked. Mr. Krebs received an email on Wednesday alerting him that his status in the Global Entry program had changed, prompting him to log into his account. The program, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, lets people deemed low-risk re-enter the country faster than normal travelers."

Trump wants nice White Americans to have more babies, but he doesn't care if those babies die in their cribs: ~~~

~~~ Ismael Belkoura of Medill News Service, published by STAT: "The Trump administration has cancelled federal participation in Safe to Sleep, a 30-year campaign to prevent babies from dying in their sleep, STAT and the Medill News Service have learned. The elimination of the National Institutes of Health's role in the program, which helped slash infant deaths in the 2000s, comes at a time when sleep-related deaths among infants have increased. Sudden infant death rates were up nearly 12% between 2020 and 2022, according to the most recent data in a study published in JAMA Pediatrics." MB: I had to sign up to read the article.

New York Times Editors: "The first 100 days of President Trump's second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts, in which he and his appointees can override written law when they want to. It is precisely the autocratic approach that this nation's founders sought to prevent when writing the Constitution. Mr. Trump has the potential to do far more harm in the remainder of his term.... The patriotic response to today's threat is to oppose Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump has attacked at least five pillars of American democracy in his first 100 days: Separation of powers.... Due process.... Equal justice under law.... Free speech and freedom of the press....Government for the people.<" It appears the Times is publishing its own editorial with a gift link.

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "The audience ... -- comprised of Republicans, Democrats, and independents -- ... at NewsNation's town hall with ... Donald Trump burst into laughter on Wednesday after Trump said he did not believe he had made any mistakes during his first 100 days in the White House.

digby has more barfables from Trump's Cabinet meeting worship service yesterday. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Paul Krugman: "... it's important to be clear that the bad [economic] news is all on Trump's head, and we mustn't let him get away with claiming otherwise.... Most of the time presidents have much less impact on the economy than many people believe.... A president's policies usually don't have large economic effects in the first few months of their administration. But Trump's policies have been so extreme that they are already making the economy visibly worse. In particular expectations of high tariffs began distorting business decisions even before the tariffs went into effect. If you look at the GDP numbers released yesterday, you see a huge surge in imports coupled with a large surge in inventories. Both of these clearly reflected businesses 'front-running' expected tariffs, racing to buy as much from China in particular as they could before the tariffs went into effect.... We're ... already seeing signs of Trump's policies causing broad economic weakness[.]" ~~~

     ~~~ Bonus Krugman: In this short post Krugman also (a) knocks the NYT headline writers, (b) insists that "data: is plural, and (c) mocks Trump for "com[ing] out as a critic of consumerism and proponent of the higher, spiritual side of life."

Gosh, it turns out Musk really is proud of being the "DOGEfather." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Marcie Jones of Wonkette on some of the Homeland Security atrocities: "There've been deaths in custody, at least five that we know of since January 20.... We've got children as young as three being forced to somehow defend themselves in court, because the administration has cut funding for their legal aid. A judge ordered it be restored, but CNN reports that hasn't happened.... More things that are simply outrageous and unacceptable: the family of American citizens who had their house raided in Oklahoma.... And then there's the students, tourists, and more than 200 people who accidentally made a wrong turn in Detroit and found themselves at the Canadian border, and then detained.... In mid-February ICE stopped using body cameras.... The Justice Department has told immigration agents in a secret memo that they can bust into houses and arrest people under the Alien Enemies Act with no warrant.... 'According to sworn declarations filed in court by those detained, Border Patrol agents slashed tires, yanked people out of trucks, threw people to the ground, and called farmworkers 'Mexican bitches' [because they looked Hispanic].... It's all part of the plan for as much cruelty as possible." Thanks to RAS for the link.

You Might Be an Okie ... if you expect crazy conspiracy theories to be part of your child's high-school social studies curriculum. ~~~

~~~ Oklahoma. Education, Trump-Conspiracy Style. Judd Legum, et al., of Popular Information: "Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to learn about ... [Donald] Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. The lesson will not be part of a course on conspiracy theories, but an official component of the new social studies curriculum created by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R).... In March, Walters said the purpose of this section was to teach "students to think for themselves" and 'not be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda.' According to Walters, there are 'legitimate concerns' about the integrity of the 2020 election that were 'raised by millions of Americans in 2020.'"

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The group 50501 is planning a 50-state National Day of Solidarity for today. Check 50501's site to find a protest you can join.

[The Trump administration is ] proudly lawless and anti-law.... [The danger] is that Trump is the most powerful person in the world, and he does not seem to be very good at restraining himself and he's not getting any younger. -- Prof. Akhil Reed Amar, Yale Law

IOW, Donald Trump has a dangerous amount of power for an out-of-control ignoramus who is growing more and more senile. -- Marie ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Nearly every president has pushed the bounds of executive power to try to achieve something specific. And a handful of presidents who took office during a true national crisis, like the Civil War or the depths of the Great Depression, swiftly made a series of legally aggressive moves to grapple with the challenges facing the country. But the sheer volume and intensity of the power grab ... [Donald] Trump has undertaken in the first 100 days of his second term -- an assault on legal constraints untethered to any equivalent catastrophe -- is unlike anything the United States has experienced.... The rule of law in the United States has been traditionally understood to use checks and balances to prevent too much concentration of arbitrary executive power. But the maximalist cascade in the early days of Mr. Trump's second term is testing the fundamental structures of American democracy in a way that has never been seen before. Mr. Trump, pursuing a confrontational style of presidential politics, has unleashed an assault on counterweights to his authority: attacking judges, sidelining Congress's role in making decisions about taxes and spending, steamrolling internal limits on the executive branch and using the levers of government to try to force outside centers of power like law firms and universities to submit to his will." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald "Trump took office 101 days ago after a campaign in which voters bought his argument that he could skillfully manage the economy and that his policy prescriptions could both bolster growth and eradicate inflation. So the news on Wednesday that the nation's gross domestic product had contracted in the first three months of the year was a sharp political jolt as well as a blinking economic warning.... [This was] Wall Street's worst performance at the start of a new presidential term since Gerald R. Ford tried to steer the country out of scandal and inflation 51 years ago.... For many of the products Americans will be paying more for -- especially Chinese-made products -- there is no American alternative. And for many more, producing them in the United States may make no sense."

Suck It Up, Kids -- McScrooge McDonald. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald "Trump has a message for the nation's children: Prepare to sacrifice for your country. He was taking questions at the end of one of his marathon cabinet meetings when he finally allowed that, yes, his tariff policies and the trade war he has set off with China may soon result in some emptier-than-usual shelves in stores. Specifically, toy stores. 'You know, somebody said, "Oh, the shelves are going to be open,"' Mr. Trump said. 'Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.'... There he sat, surrounded by the other billionaires with whom he has filled his cabinet, telling the boys and girls of America they'll just have to make do with fewer toys this year for the greater good. This grinchy pronouncement by the president had the value of being truthful. Many American toymakers and retailers have started to pause their orders as the effects of Mr. Trump's tariffs ripple out, threatening to snarl supply chains. It could all have a big impact on this year's holiday season since it takes months to manufacture, package and ship many products to the United States." The AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: MSNBC was reporting yesterday that 90 percent of U.S. Christmas goods come from China.

Alan Rappeport, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States will share future revenues from Ukraine's mineral reserves under a deal announced by the Trump administration on Wednesday that creates a joint investment fund between the countries. The agreement comes after months of fraught negotiations as the United States tries to broker an end to Ukraine's three-year war with Russia. It is intended to give ... [Donald] Trump a personal stake in the country's fate while addressing his concerns that the United States has provided Kyiv with a blank check to try to withstand Russia's invasion.... The Trump administration did not immediately provide details about the agreement, and it was not clear what it meant for the future of American military support for Ukraine. One person familiar with the negotiations ... said the final deal does not include explicit guarantees of future U.S. security assistance.... Despite the fanfare, the deal will have little significance if fighting between Ukraine and Russia persists. But Ukraine's supporters hope the agreement might lead Mr. Trump to see the country as something more than a money pit and an obstacle to improved relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia." A CBS News story is here.

Trump Corruption, International Edition. Vivian Nereim & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The Trump Organization has agreed to a new Middle East golf course and real estate deal that involves a Qatari government-owned firm, two weeks before ... [Donald] Trump is set to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a state visit. The project in Qatar, a key U.S. ally and home to a major American military base, is a partnership with Qatari Diar, a real estate company established by the country's sovereign wealth fund and chaired by a government minister. Eric Trump, the president's son who runs the family business, traveled to the Middle East this week to attend a cryptocurrency conference and promote the company's real estate developments, which include a separate Trump-branded tower in Dubai, the largest city in the Emirates. The two projects will also involve Dar Global, the international subsidiary of the private Saudi real estate firm Dar Al Arkan, which is leading the project and has close ties to the Saudi government.... Few places exemplify the Trump family's fluid melding of business with politics as clearly as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, the three countries in the Gulf that Mr. Trump will visit." MB: The link, which I picked up at a site that is not the NYT, looks like a freebie.

Since DOGE has cost the federal government money instead of saving taxpayer dollars, we might suspect the DOGE team is just a bunch of blunderers. But maybe not. ~~~

~~~ ⭐Julia Angwin in a New York Times op-ed: "Elon Musk may be stepping back from running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, but his legacy there is already secured. DOGE is assembling a sprawling domestic surveillance system for the Trump administration -- the likes of which we have never seen in the United States.... [Donald] Trump could soon have the tools to satisfy his many grievances by swiftly locating compromising information about his political opponents or anyone who simply annoys him. The administration has already declared that it plans to comb through tax records to find the addresses of immigrants it is investigating -- a plan so morally and legally challenged, it prompted several top I.R.S. officials to quit in protest.... What this amounts to is a stunningly fast reversal of our long history of siloing government data to prevent its misuse. In their first 100 days, Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump have knocked down the barriers that were intended to prevent them from creating dossiers on every U.S. resident. Now they seem to be building a defining feature of many authoritarian regimes: comprehensive files on everyone so they can punish those who protest.

"Over the past 100 days, DOGE teams have grabbed personal data about U.S. residents from dozens of federal databases and are reportedly merging it all into a master database at the Department of Homeland Security. This month House Democratic lawmakers reported that a whistle-blower had come forward ... [and] alleged that DOGE workers are filling backpacks wit multiple laptops, each one loaded with purloined agency data." MB: It occurs to me that not only has Homeland Security compiled this information, but Elon & the boys have it, too. It's true that the data get more obsolete every day. BUT among Elon's team are young men who specialize in hacking, and I expect there are also DOGE boys still inside Homeland Security. So there's every reason to suspect that the richest person in the world also personally has control of information on most Americans.

Red State Blues. Sophia Cai & Ben Johansen of Politico: "The cuts [in government spending that Elon Musk & Doge have made] are hitting home in the reddest parts of the country, and Republican elected officials are starting to push back. Abrupt cuts at AmeriCorps this week have landed hard in deep red states with high poverty rates like West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama, where national service programs have long-filled gaps in education, disaster response and job training.... More than 20 blue states filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing the Trump administration of illegally dismantling the agency without congressional authority. On Capitol Hill, some moderate Republicans are looking for ways to stop the bleeding."

Connie Loizos of Tech Crunch: "According to a new, brow-raising WSJ report, Tesla's board quietly began searching for Elon Musk's potential successor about a month ago, approaching executive search firms as the carmaker faced protests, plummeting sales, and shrinking profits while Musk waded into Washington to slash government spending. Board members reportedly met with Musk to express concerns about his divided attention, telling him he needed to spend more time on Tesla and to publicly commit to doing so; per the Journal report, Musk didn't push back and subsequently told investors he would 'allocate far more time to Tesla' starting in May.... It's unclear whether Musk, who has run Tesla for nearly 20 years, was aware of the effort [to find his successor]."

Ben Finley of the AP: "A federal judge on Wednesday again directed the Trump administration to provide information about its efforts so far, if any, to comply with her order to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland temporarily halted her directive for information at the administration's request last week. But with the seven-day pause expiring at 5 p.m., she set May deadlines for officials to provide sworn testimony on anything they have done to return him to the U.S.... When a reporter asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday whether he has had any conversations with El Salvador about returning Abrego Garcia, Rubio said...., 'Well, I'll never tell you that. And you know who else I'll never tell? A judge.... Because the conduct of all foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge.'" ~~~

~~~ Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "New details deepen questions about the [Trump administration's] deportations [to El Salvador], showing that El Salvador's president [Nayib Bukele] pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang.... As part of the agreement with the Trump administration, Mr. Bukele had agreed to house only what he called 'convicted criminals' in the prison. However, many of the Venezuelan men labeled gang members and terrorists by the U.S. government had not been tried in court.... The matter was urgent, a senior U.S. official warned his colleagues shortly after the deportations, kicking off a scramble to get the Salvadorans whatever evidence they could.... [Bukele] did not want to bring in noncriminal migrants; he could not convince Salvadorans he was prioritizing their national interests if he turned their country into a dumping ground for U.S. deportees from other countries, he explained to Mr. Trump's aides." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Then There's This. Really?? Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration recently sent a diplomatic note to officials in El Salvador to inquire about releasing a Salvadoran immigrant whom government officials have been ordered by the Supreme Court to help free, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. But the authoritarian government of Nayib Bukele, the leader of El Salvador, said no, two of the people said. The Bukele administration claimed the man should stay in El Salvador because he is a Salvadoran citizen.... It remained unclear whether the diplomatic effort was a genuine bid by the White House to address the plight of the immigrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom administration officials have repeatedly acknowledged was improperly expelled to El Salvador last month in violation of a court order expressly prohibiting him from being sent there. Some legal experts suggested that the sequence of events could have been an attempt at window dressing by officials seeking to give the appearance of being in compliance with the recent Supreme Court ruling ordering the White House to 'facilitate' Mr. Abrego Garcia's release. The disclosure about the note adds to the confusion about the Trump administration's efforts to free Mr. Abrego Garcia and whether it is seeking to comply with court orders." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I would say Trump's remarks to Terry Moran of ABC News entirely undermine the fake cover story the administration has floated to Schmidt, et al. More from Aaron Blake, linked next, & Zolan Kanno-Youngs yesterday. ~~~

~~~ White House Won't Explain Why Trump Is So Stupid. Shawn McCreesh & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "During an interview with Terry Moran of ABC News on Tuesday..., [Donald] Trump insisted that the man his administration had mistakenly deported to El Salvador had a gang name tattooed on his hand. 'On his knuckles,' Mr. Trump said, 'he had MS-13.'... In the interview with Mr. Moran, the president appeared to believe that the characters that had been typed onto [a] photo he [had] triumphantly held up in [a] social media post [last week] were in fact tattoos themselves. Mr. Moran gingerly tried to correct the record about that, but Mr. Trump was having none of it.... He could not bring himself to admit that Mr. Abrego Garcia did not have the words 'MS-13' tattooed on his hand.... Asked about the exchange on Wednesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman..., declined to answer questions about why Mr. Trump would not accept that Mr. Abrego Garcia does not in fact have 'MS-13' tattooed on his hand, and that the photograph Mr. Trump had posed with in his social media post had been altered." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A few days ago, RAS linked an unsourced photo of a law-enforcement-style badge that said "DOGEfather" and purportedly belonged to Elon Musk. I thought it was a joke but Googled it anyway, and the only reputable source I found was the Daily Beast, which I can't access. So I didn't post the picture even though I found it amusing. I'm not the POTUS. I don't have all the agencies Tulsi Gabbard oversees to verify or rule out a claim. Nevertheless, I do know that one doesn't post a defamatory photo without making an effort to find out if it's real or at least acknowledge it might be a hoax. The fact that an ordinary person like me is more careful of the reputation of someone I despise than is the POTUS* is alarming.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump, for the second time in a week, undermined the administration's claims about its ability to get [Kilmar] Abrego García -- who was wrongly deported -- returned to the United States. And it's quite possible his comments could feature significantly in an ongoing showdown with the courts in which the administration is at the very least flouting court orders -- if not outright defying them. Trump's comments indicate the administration has effectively decided not to get Abrego García returned. And they could be used as evidence that the administration is deliberately violating court orders that said the administration must 'facilitate' his return." Related NYT story, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is yet another example of Trump's practice of committing crimes right out in the open. In this case, he's admitting he defied not just lower court orders by also a Supreme Court directive. So Blake is right about Trump's admissions. Not only that, earlier today RAS hit the nail on the head after reviewing Trump's remarks to Terry Moran of ABC News: "Trump the Plague is literally being judge, jury and executioner. And it is with fake Photoshopped evidence."

A Tiny Bit of Good News. Ana Ley of the New York Times: "Mohsen Mahdawi, an organizer of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University, was freed from federal custody on Wednesday as immigration officials seek to rescind his green card as part of a widening crackdown against student protesters. In ruling to release Mr. Mahdawi on bail, Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford of Federal District Court in Vermont found on Wednesday that he did not pose a danger to the public and that he was not a flight risk. The judge drew parallels between the current political climate and McCarthyism, saying it was 'not our proudest moment.' The immigration case against Mr. Mahdawi will continue, his lawyers said, but he will now be able to fight it from outside a detention facility.... Mr. Mahdawi, 34, had been in custody since April 14, when immigration officials detained him at an appointment in Vermont that he thought was a step toward becoming a U.S. citizen." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Hafiz Rashid of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: "In Oklahoma City Thursday, about 20 federal immigration agents raided the wrong home, forcing a woman out of the house with her three daughters, not even leaving them enough time to get dressed, and then seized their phones, laptops, and life savings. The woman had only moved into the house two weeks earlier, after relocating to Oklahoma from Maryland. The armed agents told the woman ... that they had a search warrant, but the named suspects on the warrant didn't live in the house and weren't connected to anyone in the family.... The agents, who identified themselves as U.S. marshals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and FBI agents, didn't seem to care, waking the family up, forcing them outside in their underwear, ransacking the house, and taking the family's belongings as 'evidence.'" Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's digby's take. The post is titled, "They Really Should Abolish ICE." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Rachel Maddow said last night that the U.S. Marshals & FBI said they had nothing to do with the raid on this family's home. She noted that two little cards that listed the property taken from the home said the agency seizing the property was "HSI," which stands for Homeland Security Investigations, apparently a little known agency of Homeland Security.

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's efforts to significantly broaden the number of countries willing to accept people deported from the United States has found a welcoming partner in the African nation of Rwanda. A recent U.S. overture, which included a list of names of potential deportees to Rwanda, was received warmly, according to a Rwandan official.... Under the proposal, Rwanda would join a growing number of nations -- including El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama -- that have agreed to receive deportees who are not their citizens.... The deportation discussions have coincided with U.S. efforts to broker a peace agreement between Rwanda and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo."

Fear of Condensation. "RFK Jr. Goes Full Tinfoil." Ed Cara of the Huffington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gone full conspiracy buff. In a recent interview with Dr. Phil, the Secretary of Health and Human Services vowed to combat the entirely fabricated threat of chemtrails.... At one point [in a town-hall interview which Dr. Phil conducted], Kennedy fully endorsed an audience member's fears about chemtrails, appeared to blame another government agency for their existence, and said he would do everything in his power to stop them. Even among conspiracy theories, the logic underlying chemtrails is especially stupid. The theory goes that planes have been secretly seeding the skies with all sorts of chemical weapons that have been poisoning people for decades -- weapons that conveniently leave behind easily visible trails. Some people claim these chemicals are also -- or instead -- being used to modify the weather. In truth, these trails are the product of condensation that usually happens when jet fuel exhaust -- mostly made out of water vapor but also containing small particles of soot -- mixes with cold, humid air at high altitudes."

Lauren Weber, et al., of the Washington Post: "Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. intends to shift the way vaccines are tested, a move that the agency said will increase transparency but that medical experts fear could limit access to vaccines and undermine the public's trust in immunization depending on its implementation. The potential change outlined in a statement says all new vaccines will be required to undergo placebo testing, a procedure in which some people receive the vaccine and others receive an inert substance -- such as a saline shot -- before the results are compared.... For well-researched diseases, such as measles and polio, public health experts say it makes little sense to do that and can be unethical, because the placebo group would not receive a known effective intervention."

Senate Fail. Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday rejected an effort to undo ... [Donald] Trump's sweeping tariffs on most U.S. trading partners, even as a small group of Republicans joined Democrats in delivering a rebuke to a trade policy that many lawmakers fear is causing economic harm. The vote deadlocked at 49 to 49, meaning it failed despite three Republicans joining Democrats in favor of a measure that sought to terminate the national emergency declaration Mr. Trump used this month to impose 10 percent reciprocal tariffs. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a cosponsor of the resolution, crossed party lines to support it, as well as Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. But the defections were not enough to make up for the absences of two supporters: Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who backed a similar measure this month." The NBC News story is here.

Steve Inskeep & Obed Manuel of NPR: "The Republican majority in the House of Representatives has blocked an inquiry into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the encrypted messaging app Signal.... Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told Morning Edition that House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans blocked any inquiry resolutions into the matter because they know Hegseth and his actions are 'indefensible.' Smith filed a resolution of inquiry, which allows a member of the House to force an investigation even when they're in the minority."

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Israel. Miriam Berger & Julia Ledur of the Washington Post: "In the six weeks since Israel resumed its war in Gaza, Israeli forces have dramatically altered its map, declaring about 70 percent of the enclave either a military 'red zone' or under evacuation, according to the United Nations, and pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into ever-shrinking pockets.... Recent evacuation orders have covered border areas and population centers and have displaced more than 420,000 people, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In addition, Israel has enlarged its 'security zone,' also called a buffer zone, along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt."

News Lede

CNBC: "Initial unemployment claims posted an unexpected increase last week in a potential trouble sign for the wobbling U.S. economy. First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled a seasonally adjusted 241,000 for the week ended April 26, up 18,000 from the prior period and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. This was the highest total since Feb. 22. Continuing claims, which run a week behind and provide a broader view of layoff trends, rose to 1.92 million, up 83,000 to the highest level since Nov. 13, 2021. Much of the gain seemed to come from one state -- New York, where claims more than doubled to 30,043, according to unadjusted data. The increase may have been due to spring recess in New York public schools, according to Sam Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. 'Nonetheless, the deterioration in the timeliest hiring and firing indicators over the last couple weeks suggests that jobless claims will trend up over coming weeks,' Tombs said in a note."