Trump’s upcoming tariffs will be “effective immediately”
Trump’s tariffs will become effective on the day they’re announced — which will be this Wednesday, according to the White House.
“My understanding is that the tariff announcement will come tomorrow. They will be effective immediately,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
“The president has been teasing this for quite some time,” Leavitt said, noting that Trump has repeatedly hyped up April 2 as America’s “liberation day.”
Prosecutors want the death penalty for Luigi Mangione
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for the "premeditated, cold-blooded assassination,” that Mangione allegedly carried out against UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
Thompson was shot dead outside a hotel in New York on December 4. Mangione, 26, was arrested days later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt. He has pleaded not guilty to state charges, and has yet to enter a plea for separate federal charges. He is currently awaiting trial in a New York prison.
Sen Cory Booker’s anti-Trump speech on the Senate floor has been going on for over 22 hours
The New Jersey Democratic Senator is continuing his marathon speech this Tuesday, which started at 7pm ET this Monday. Booker says he plans to speak as long as he’s “physically able.”
"It's my plan to continue to go for as long as I possibly can," he said in the update shortly after 8 a.m. ET. "I know we have the power, I believe the power of the people is greater than the people in power."
MAGA turns against Trump’s Commerce Secretary
According to the New York Post, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, “the hard-charging former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and ex-co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has rubbed colleagues the wrong way on matters of both substance and style — with critics venting about his recent proclamation that a tariff-induced recession would be “worth it,” his call for the public to buy Tesla stock and his practice of inserting himself into policy discussions.”
If you remember, Lutnick was the guy who during an interview suggested that only "fraudsters" would complain about missing a Social Security check — but good and honest people like his mother-in-law would just wait for the next one because it’s not such a big deal.
Law enforcement officials are freaked out about Elon Musk’s planned DOGE fraud arrest
During a livestream Monday night, Musk suggested he has advance knowledge of an upcoming arrest related to Social Security fraud.
"Yes. In fact, I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow," Musk said in response to a question about whether U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi would prosecute fraud found within the Social Security system.
"This is someone who actually stole 400,000 social security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database, and was selling social security numbers and all of all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security,” Musk added.
But reports say that law enforcement officials are pissed that Musk is talking publicly about an ongoing investigation. As anyone knows, revealing details of an ongoing investigation puts those involved at risk.
Trump admin admits they deported the wrong person to a prison in El Salvador
In a court filing this Monday, the Trump administration admitted that it had mistakenly deported a Maryland father to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” — however, the administration also said that there’s no way to get him back.
From CNN:
The filing stems from a lawsuit over the removal of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who in 2019 was granted protected status by an immigration judge, prohibiting the federal government from sending him to El Salvador.
The filing, first reported by The Atlantic, appears to mark the first time the administration has admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador, which are now at the center of a fraught legal battle.
Trump admin fires thousands of US health agency workers
Thousands of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees across the country are being laid off this Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s workforce reduction plan. When everything is said and done, up to 10,000 people could be laid off at the agency.
Speaking to The Guardian, one employee who has been with the agency for 20 years and was waiting in line to find out her fate, said she and her colleagues have known for some time that Trump was targeting the agency.
“It’s in Project 2025,” she said. “Basically since February they’ve been telling us we might be let go.”
In a related incident, a fired HHS employee confronted GOP Senator Jim Banks, who was caught on video replying to the employee by telling him he “probably deserved” his firing.
Watch the video below:
Trump suspends dozens of research grants to Princeton University
In an announcement this Tuesday, Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber said that several research grants to the school have been suspended.
“The full rationale for this action is not yet clear,” Eisgruber said in a statement.
“Princeton University will comply with the law. We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism. Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University,” Eisgruber added.
From CNN:
Princeton is the latest Ivy League school to face funding halts or cuts since President Donald Trump took office. Last month, his administration first canceled $400 million to Columbia University over antisemitism on campus, paused $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania and placed more than $9 billion in contracts and grants under review at Harvard University as part of its investigation into antisemitism on campus.
Experts sound the alarm on Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms
Trump’s recent executive orders that target major law firms show he’s serious about getting even with his political opponents. But experts are worried about the long-term damage Trump could do to the rule of law.
From CBS News:
The executive orders signed by Mr. Trump have so far targeted four law firms: Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, and Jenner & Block. But the directive targeting Paul Weiss was rescinded after it and Mr. Trump reached an agreement under which the firm agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services for causes that the administration supports, among other assurances.
A fifth firm, Covington & Burling, was the subject of a directive that targeted the security clearance of a lawyer who assisted former special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the two prosecutions of Mr. Trump that were dropped, one in July 2024, and the other after he was elected to a second term.
Economist warns Trump is about to make history — just not the kind he wants
In an op-ed for Bloomberg published this Tuesday, Labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards wrote that Trump is about to make history with his global trade wars, but not the good kind of history.
In her op-ed, Edwards argued that the United States economy is "plodding toward a recession" and that "this will arguably be the only recession directly caused by White House policy."
"Tariffs... both the ones levied by the administration and those put on the U.S. by its trading partners in retaliation, are paralyzing business activity and rattling consumers," she wrote. "Wall Street firms are rapidly reducing their estimates for how much gross domestic product will expand. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s widely-followed index of the economy in real time has turned negative. The Conference Board and the University of Michigan both report steep declines in consumer confidence."
"Recessions are often self-fulfilling in that if enough people believe it will happen, it will happen as consumers pull back on things like spending and business cut workers in anticipation of the inevitable downturn," she continued. "Aggregate demand sees three hits during recessions: Workers who lose jobs; workers who are afraid of losing their jobs; and workers who keep their jobs but experience much slower wage growth."
"This one’s claim to infamy is that it’ll be the only one self-inflicted,” she argued.
Finally, read our post from today: Signalgate reporter says the quiet part out loud…
During an appearance on Meet the Press this Sunday, the journalist who was accidentally added to the Signal chat that included the highest levels of the Trump administration said that behind the scenes, Vice President JD Vance doesn’t have a very high opinion of Trump’s decision making.
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