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Category: Politics

Spooked by trade wars, Trump officials stockpile supplies: ‘It would be stupid not to!’

Spooked by trade wars, Trump officials stockpile supplies: ‘It would be stupid not to!’

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump’s trade wars with China and other nations are widely expected to cause sharp economic pain, but some experts have warned consumers not to hoard supplies and goods before prices skyrocket, arguing that mass stockpiling could backfire spectacularly. Well, many Americans aren’t listening to that advice, according to survey data this year, instead preparing for the possibility of store shelves being bare amid a Trump-inflicted recession. Funnily enough, this includes a number of government officials and…

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As Mike Waltz gets pushed out, ‘Laura Loomer gets a confirmed kill’

As Mike Waltz gets pushed out, ‘Laura Loomer gets a confirmed kill’

Axios reports: Mike Waltz has been a dead man walking in the White House for the past month, and the outgoing national security adviser started to act like it, Trump administration sources tell Axios. Why it matters: “Signalgate” badly damaged Waltz, but it wasn’t his only problem. He got on the wrong side of everyone from conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. After a flood of reports that Waltz was being pushed out, President Trump confirmed the news but…

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Trump’s tirade at interviewer wrecks his own case against Abrego Garcia

Trump’s tirade at interviewer wrecks his own case against Abrego Garcia

Greg Sargent writes: President Donald Trump grew angry as a reporter persistently questioned him about his refusal to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a prison in El Salvador—and in so doing, Trump accidentally demolished his whole case against the wrongfully deported Salvadoran man. In the interview, ABC News’s Terry Moran pointed out that Trump has the power to pick up the phone, call El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, and with the “power of the presidency” get Bukele to release…

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Judge ordering Mohsen Mahdawi’s release compared current political climate with McCarthyism

Judge ordering Mohsen Mahdawi’s release compared current political climate with McCarthyism

  The New York Times reports: Mohsen Mahdawi, an organizer of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University, was freed from federal custody on Wednesday, more than two weeks after immigration officials detained him and sought to rescind his green card as part of a widening crackdown against student protesters. In releasing Mr. Mahdawi on bail, Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford of Federal District Court in Vermont drew parallels between the current political climate and McCarthyism. “This is not the first time…

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Trump administration considers sending migrants to Libya and Rwanda, sources say

Trump administration considers sending migrants to Libya and Rwanda, sources say

CNN reports: The Trump administration has discussed with Libya and Rwanda the possibility of sending migrants who have criminal records and are in the United States to those two countries, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. The proposals mark a dramatic escalation in the administration’s push to deter people journeying to the United States and remove some of those already here to countries thousands of miles away, some of which have checkered pasts. President Donald Trump signed an…

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Sen. Rand Paul: Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple

Sen. Rand Paul: Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple

  The New York Times reports: The Senate on Wednesday rejected an effort to undo President 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…

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Supply chain shock

Supply chain shock

  David Dayen writes: I don’t care how well-stocked a company is; if they rely on finished goods or component parts from China, there will come a point pretty soon when they won’t have enough. West Coast ports are just about to feel the effects of this, because it takes around 30 days for container ships to make the journey from Asia to the U.S. Next week, ships entering the Port of Los Angeles will drop 35 percent compared to last year…

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Majority of Americans see Trump as a ‘dangerous dictator’ who may destroy democracy, poll finds

Majority of Americans see Trump as a ‘dangerous dictator’ who may destroy democracy, poll finds

Axios reports: A majority of Americans say President Trump is a “dangerous dictator” who poses a threat to democracy and believe he’s overstepped his authority by actions such as the mass firing of federal employees, a new survey says. Why it matters: The wide-ranging poll released Tuesday, on Trump’s 100th day in office, is the latest sign of him losing support for his immigration and economic policies — the two issues that largely fueled his election. Zoom in: Only four in 10 Americans expressed favorable views of Trump after…

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‘Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,’ warns Canada’s newly elected prime minister

‘Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,’ warns Canada’s newly elected prime minister

  Zack Beauchamp writes: Canada’s Liberals just pulled off one of the greatest upsets in modern democratic history: going from a predicted wipeout in December to victory on Monday night. To understand why, you need to look at the signs on the sidewalk. I don’t mean the ones advertising Prime Minister Mark Carney’s triumphant party, though there were plenty of those. Rather, I’m referring to the ones outside many businesses, containing long lists of the Canadian-made products on offer. The…

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‘They disappear them’: Families of the detained liken Trump’s America to Latin American dictatorships

‘They disappear them’: Families of the detained liken Trump’s America to Latin American dictatorships

The Guardian reports: Neiyerver Rengel’s captors came one sunny spring morning, lurking outside the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and pouncing as soon as he emerged. The three government agents announced the young Venezuelan man had “charges to answer” and was being detained. “Everything’s going to be OK,” the man’s girlfriend, Richely Alejandra Uzcátegui Gutiérrez, remembers the handcuffed 27-year-old reassuring her as she gave him one last hug. Then Rengel was put in a vehicle and vanished into thin…

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Trump’s abuse of antisemitism to fight civil liberties is reason to not give him more powers, Jewish orgs tell Senate

Trump’s abuse of antisemitism to fight civil liberties is reason to not give him more powers, Jewish orgs tell Senate

New Jewish Narrative: A coalition of 10 Jewish organizations sent a letter today to Senate offices calling on them to oppose the Antisemitism Awareness Act (S.558). The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) is scheduled to meet tomorrow to consider the bill. The letter cautions that “Voting in favor of this legislation in this current political climate would represent an endorsement of the Trump Administration’s escalating efforts to weaponize antisemitism as a pretext for undermining civil rights, deporting…

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Delusions of monarchy coupled with fundamental ineptitude define Trump’s first 100 days

Delusions of monarchy coupled with fundamental ineptitude define Trump’s first 100 days

David Smith writes: He has blinged it with gold cherubim, gold eagles, gold medallions, gold figurines and gilded rococo mirrors. He has crammed its walls with gold-framed paintings of great men from US history. In 100 days Donald Trump has turned the Oval Office into a gilded cage. The portraits of Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan and other past presidents gaze down from a past that the 47th seems determined to erase. Trump is seeking to remake the US in his…

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Trump’s first 100 days show him dictating the terms of press coverage − following Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán’s playbook for media control

Trump’s first 100 days show him dictating the terms of press coverage − following Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán’s playbook for media control

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during a meeting in the Oval Office on May 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images By Adam G. Klein, Pace University Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stood before a captivated audience of conservative activists from the U.S. and laid out his vision for American politics. The Western media, he declared at a May 2022 special meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee in Budapest, are “the root…

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Agriculture isn’t nearing trade war tariffs crisis, ‘it is full blown crisis already’ farmers report

Agriculture isn’t nearing trade war tariffs crisis, ‘it is full blown crisis already’ farmers report

CNBC reports: The clock is ticking on trade deals that the U.S. will need to strike with many nations, most notably China, to avoid what Trump’s Treasury Secretary has described as an “unsustainable” tariffs war. But in the U.S. farming sector, the damage has already been done and the economic crisis already begun. U.S. agriculture exporters say the global backlash to President Trump’s tariffs is punishing them, especially a decline in Chinese buying of U.S. farm products, leading to cancelled…

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DOGE operatives gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets

DOGE operatives gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets

NPR reports: Two members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have been given accounts on classified networks that hold highly guarded details about America’s nuclear weapons, two independent sources tell NPR. Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, and Adam Ramada, a Miami-based venture capitalist, have had accounts on the computer systems for at least two weeks, according to the sources who also have access to the networks. Prior to their work at DOGE, neither Farritor nor Ramada appear…

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Musk’s Doge conflicts of interest worth $2.37bn, Senate report says

Musk’s Doge conflicts of interest worth $2.37bn, Senate report says

The Guardian reports: Elon Musk and his companies face at least $2.37bn in legal exposure from federal investigations, litigation and regulatory oversight, according to a new report from Senate Democrats. The report attempts to put a number to Musk’s many conflicts of interest through his work with his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), warning that he may seek to use his influence to avoid legal liability. The report, which was published on Monday by Democratic members of the Senate…

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