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Category: donald trump

  • Why Trump And Musk Ignore The Largest Money Laundering Scheme In Human History

    President Trump and Elon Musk will tell you they’re saving money for the US government and thereby the US taxpayer. The DOGE team have claimed that they have already cut out $65 billion of waste and fraud – equaling savings for the American people. Incredible! (I’m going to invest my cut of that money in an up-and-coming fad called “fidget spinners”.)

    Oh, I forgot to mention – Everything Musk has said is utterly false. “…some of the biggest errors in savings [announced by DOGE] are, as CBS first reported, a USAID contract for $650 million that was listed three times, as The Intercept first reported, a Social Security contract listed as $232 million, instead of $560,000, and an ICE contract that DOGE listed as $8 billion, when, in reality, it was $8 million.”

    The post Why Trump And Musk Ignore The Largest Money Laundering Scheme In Human History appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Peters emphasises growing importance of NZ’s Pacific ties with the United States

    By Grace Tinetali-Fiavaai, RNZ Pacific journalist in Hawai’i

    New Zealand’s Pacific connection with the United States is “more important than ever”, says Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters after rounding up the Hawai’i leg of his Pacific trip.

    Peters said common strategic interests of the US and New Zealand were underlined while in the state.

    “Our Pacific links with the United States are more important than ever,” Peters said.

    “New Zealand’s partnership with the United States remains one of our most long standing and important, particularly when seen in the light of our joint interests in the Pacific and the evolving security environment.”

    The Deputy Prime Minister has led a delegation made up of cross-party MPs, who are heading to Fiji for a brief overnight stop, before heading to Vanuatu.

    Peters said the stop in Honolulu allowed for an exchange of ideas and the role New Zealand can play in working with regional partners in the region.

    “We have long advocated for the importance of an active and engaged United States in the Indo-Pacific, and this time in Honolulu allowed us to continue to make that case.”

    Approaching Trump ‘right way’
    The delegation met with Hawai’i’s Governor Josh Green, who confirmed with him that New Zealand was approaching US President Donald Trump in the “right way”.

    “The fact is, this is a massively Democrat state. But nevertheless, they deal with Washington very, very well, and privately, we have got an inside confirmation that our approach is right.

    “Be very careful, these things are very important, words matter and be ultra-cautious. All those things were confirmed by the governor.”

    Governor Green told reporters he had spent time with Trump and talked to the US administration all the time.

    “I can’t guarantee that they will bend their policies, but I try to be very rational for the good of our state, in our region, and it seems to be so far working,” he said.

    He said the US and New Zealand were close allies.

    “So having these additional connections with the political leadership and people from the community and business leaders, it helps us, because as we move forward in somewhat uncertain times, having more friends helps.”

    At the East-West Center in Honolulu, Peters said New Zealand and the United States had not always seen eye-to-eye and “US Presidents have not always been popular back home”.

    “My view of the strategic partnership between New Zealand and the United States is this: we each have the right, indeed the imperative, to pursue our own foreign policies, driven by our own sense of national interest.”

    The delegation also met the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Samuel Paparo, the interim president of the East-West Center Dr James Scott, and Hawai’i-based representatives for Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Tariffs – Trump Blinks Again

    On Thursday President Trump pulled back on tariffs because a sell-off in treasuries threatened to develop into a serious economic catastrophe.

    Tariffs were reduced to 10% for most countries but China. (10% is still a lot higher than they were before Trump started his tariff onslaught.) The tariffs on products from China were raised to a total of 145%.

    The high China tariffs would inevitably lead to a steep raise of U.S. prices for consumer electronics which, at least partially, are nowadays coming from China. For big U.S. companies, foremost Apple, this would have entailed large losses.

    So Trump blinked again.

    The post Tariffs – Trump Blinks Again appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • “Obviously a Lie”: El Salvador’s Bukele Claims He Can’t Return Abrego García

    El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is refusing to return Kilmar Abrego García — a Maryland man with protected status who the Trump administration deported to El Salvador — to the U.S. In a White House press conference on Monday, Bukele, who was sitting next to Donald Trump, claimed that he lacks the power to return Abrego García — a claim immigration experts and advocates have said is an…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Wealthy Could Dodge $30M in Taxes Every Day Under Trump-Musk Plan to Gut IRS

    The Trump administration’s plan to cut the workforce of the Internal Revenue Service in half and gut enforcement efforts could enable the richest people in the United States to evade an additional $30 million in taxes per day on average, according to an analysis published Monday on the eve of the nation’s tax filing deadline. The analysis by the humanitarian group Oxfam America notes that the…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • US Has Killed 123 in Yemen Since Bombing Planned on Signal, Health Officials Say

    The U.S. has killed over 100 people in Yemen in less than a month of bombardments, Yemen health officials say, killing dozens of civilians as the Trump administration escalates its attacks on the region. The Yemen Health Ministry reported on Monday that U.S. airstrikes have killed at least 123 people in Yemen since March 16, and wounded at least 247 others. This includes a strike on a…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The SAVE Act Is Not Just About “Married Women”— It’s About Trans People, Too

    When Laurel M. M. Benfield changed her name, she went through months of bureaucratic labor and countless hoops and expenses to ensure that her new legal name was reflected on all identity documents, including her birth certificate. The process required criminal background checks, notaries, court documentation, trips to the DMV, an updated license, a new marriage certificate, and finally a state ID…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • State Department Found No Evidence of DHS’s Reasons for Abducting Tuft’s Öztürk

    The State Department internally found no evidence supporting the Trump administration’s reasoning for abducting and pushing to deport Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, new reporting finds, just days before immigration officials snatched her off the streets and took her to a horrific immigrant detention center anyway. The Washington Post reported on Sunday…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump’s Education by Indoctrination Must Be Fought With Social Justice Unionism

    From the outset of his second term, President Donald Trump has fed the Constitution through a paper shredder. He has sought to strip away birthright citizenship — a constitutionally guaranteed right under the 14th Amendment — and declared, chillingly, “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” He defied a federal judge’s order to halt a deportation flight, sending immigrants to a…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump says chips from China to face national security, new tariffs

    US President Donald Trump says his administration’s latest message that the exclusion of smartphones and computers from his reciprocal tariffs on China will be short-lived, and has pledged a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector. Those electronics “are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket,’” Mr Trump said in a social media post….

    The post Trump says chips from China to face national security, new tariffs appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • Cory Booker, Confused Liberals, Obama And The Dangers Of A Fake Movement

    What kind of protest has Nancy Pelosi as a featured speaker? One that is connected to the Democratic Party and that by definition isn’t protesting anything important, which is why Nancy Pelosi appeared at a Hands Off rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania on April 5. She spoke predictably as a democratic member of congress would, saying that she wanted to protect the safety net , “Hands off our safety net. Hands off our medicaid. Hands off our medicare. Hands off our social security.” But those who have longer memories know that during the Obama administration she declared that social security was “on the table” for budget cut consideration.

    The post Cory Booker, Confused Liberals, Obama And The Dangers Of A Fake Movement appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Trump Axes Temporary Protected Status for Afghan and Cameroonian Immigrants

    The Trump administration announced on Friday that it was revoking the Temporary Protected Status — or TPS — for thousands of immigrants from Cameroon and Afghanistan who are currently living and working in the United States. The move, the latest attempt by the administration to roll back protections for migrants in the U.S. who cannot safely return to their home countries due to conflict or…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Black Americans Fight to Stop Federal Agencies’ Quiet Deletion of Their History

    Alan Spears remembers visiting Gettysburg National Military Park with his parents in the 1970s. They wanted something educational, free, and fun to do with their only son, and the park was an obvious choice, given Spears’ interests — his favorite television show as a child was The Rat Patrol, about soldiers during World War II. It was there, at the Pennsylvania park, a roughly 1½-hour drive…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump’s Mass Deportations May Be Hampering Efforts to Avert Bird Flu Pandemic

    Aggressive deportation tactics have terrorized farmworkers at the center of the nation’s bird flu strategy, public health workers say. Dairy and poultry workers have accounted for most cases of the bird flu in the U.S. — and preventing and detecting cases among them is key to averting a pandemic. But public health specialists say they’re struggling to reach farmworkers because many are…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump fanatic Farage threatens UK councils with the Elon Musk DOGE treatment

    Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been making a right old mess of the US government. While there was always much to criticise about the country, Musk and his so called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) haven’t been going after the programmes which make people’s live worse; they’ve been going after the ones which make things borderline tolerable. Now, Nigel Farage is threatening to do the same thing to councils across the UK.

    DOGE: the slashing bureau

    If you listened to Musk (like Nigel Farage seemingly has) you’d believe he genuinely wanted to improve government efficiency. If you listened to anyone who wasn’t a billionaire, you’d know that DOGE was a spite-driven machine designed to cut services for regular people.

    CNN rounded up several ways Musk “misled” Americans, including:

    • Lying about a USAID-paid celebrity trip to Ukraine designed to “boost Zelensky’s popularity among Americans” (the trip never happened).
    • Sharing misinformation spread by random X users, including a graph which suggested an increase in tax credits was some sort of nefarious welfare scheme (it was actually a scheme that Trump signed into power and Joe Biden later allowed to expire).
    • Musk also claimed “They took money from FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], meant for helping Americans in distress, and sent that money to luxury hotels for illegal immigrants in New York” (the money was from a separate scheme and the hotels weren’t luxury).

    Don’t get us wrong – we’re not saying the US government was doing good work with any of the above. USAID did benefit many people around the world, but at the same time it existed primarily to push American soft power abroad. Biden should have continued the tax credits scheme, too, and New York and the US government would actually save money by using permanent housing instead of temporary solutions like hotels.

    DOGE isn’t slashing these services to implement something better, though, it’s slashing them because Musk and other billionaires despise anything which doesn’t benefit themselves. This is why Musk is very happy to take government “contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits” for his own companies, but cries bloody murder when government money is directed anywhere else.

    Incompetent

    And let’s not forget the incompetence (something Nigel Farage needs no lessons in).

    In February, DOGE had to rush to rehire crucial workers in fields like nuclear weapons. As the Standard reported:

    Federal workers responsible for America’s nuclear weapons are being rehired after being accidentally fired in President Donald Trump’s rush to slash government waste in a whirlwind of new policies since he returned to the White House.

    Scientists trying to fight a worsening outbreak of bird flu and officials responsible for supplying electricity are also being given their jobs back after being among the tens of thousands of workers axed by Trump’s administration.

    “This shows a level of absolute incompetence in the firing process,” said Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

    “They are taking a chainsaw to public services without any kind of careful review of the people being removed and the tasks they are employed for.”

    You might not agree with nuclear weapons existing, but you probably think that as long as we do have them they should at least be secure.

    Attacking MAGA

    Another element we should mention is that the promise of DOGE to Trump voters was that it would go after the enemies of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. But do you know who it actually attacked?

    That’s right – Trump voters themselves.

    In the 2024 election, nearly two thirds of veteran voters opted for Trump. How did Trump and Musk repay them? Well, as The Week reported:

    A “climate of fear” has enveloped the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Sonner Kehrt in Mother Jones. Guided by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration has cut 2,400 jobs at the agency over the past month. And last week, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced plans to ax 80,000 more employees this year—about 17 percent of the department’s entire workforce. Despite repeated claims from administration officials that the layoffs will not affect the 9 million vets who rely on the agency for medical care and other services, VA workers say the cuts are “already hurting” patients. Suicide prevention trainings have been canceled, and therapists who work with PTSD patients have been fired. Some vets have seen mammograms and other crucial exams delayed for months because of staff shortages. Meanwhile, VA workers are struggling to focus on providing care as they worry about whether they’ll even have a job tomorrow. “Honestly, the last time I felt this level of fear was in combat,” said one decorated veteran turned veterans’ therapist.

    One thing Musk and the Trump movement have raged against is the the idea of ‘DEI hires’, with DEI standing for ‘Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion’. As it turned out, many of the veterans employed in the federal government were hired as part of DEI initiatives to provide support for American soldiers after they return from combat. Now, these soldiers are going from an environment which provided next-to-no-support to one which is actively hostile towards them.

    And all because the guy they supported won.

    Does this sound like something we want to import to the UK? Nigel Farage clearly thinks so.

    Musk’s finger puppet Nigel Farage being fingered by Laura Kuenssberg

    On her Sunday morning politics show, Laura Kuenssberg suggested the upcoming council elections could be a “big breakthrough” for Nigel Farage and his Reform Party, asking him:

    councils have been strapped for cash for a long, long time. We know that. And there are many issues. Let’s look at a couple of them.

    There’s already an overspend of £3bn for children with special needs. Councils aren’t able to give people the help that they need. They haven’t got enough money to meet it. So if Reform was to be running any council, would you increase Council Tax, or would you cut back services even further?

    You could argue these are the only two options, sure; you could also argue that Reform could use their growing electoral heft to bully Labour into sending more money to councils (money we’d like to see them generate through wealth taxes). Kuenssberg doesn’t even consider this to be an option, of course, because she’s one of the many ideology-brained austerity psychos that make up the British media.

    Farage responded:

    I’ve looked at the numbers. We did thousands of FOI requests to have a look where money was being spent. I’m gonna say this. We probably need a DOGE for every single county council in England.

    Yep, because DOGE is working out great in America.

    It’s really making people’s lives better.

    It isn’t just a scam to funnel more money to the rich.

    Nigel Farage blamed the shortages on things like councils spending money on ergonomic chairs. Undoubtedly there are instances of excessive spending which you could point at, but let us be clear – when a politician rises to power with a focus on what they can cut and not what they can improve, they really have no intention of improving anything.

    Kuenssberg did push back, saying:

    if you look properly at how local councils spend their money, nearly 80% of it is on education, police, children and adults social care, and the vast majority of it does not go on things like ergonomic chairs in the office. There are serious shortages.

    The problem is that she’s not saying this because she thinks the point about chairs is silly; she’s saying it because she wants Farage to commit to cutting things like education and adult social care.

    Little America, thanks to Nigel Farage

    With America fucking up so fantastically right now, you’d think UK politicians would want to distance themselves from the ongoing catastrophe. Sadly, it seems like our political class want to go down with the Titanic success Trump is having – with Nigel Farage cheering the pack on.

    Featured image via BBC and Wikimedia (Gage Skidmore – background removed from image)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Will Trump’s Tariffs Trigger A Second Great Depression?

    That the Trump administration’s trade war will trigger a steep economic downturn in the U.S. is almost a foregone conclusion a week after the president announced sweeping new tariffs on imports. Last week, JP Morgan, the nation’s largest bank, estimated that there is a 60 percent chance of an imminent recession.

    That was followed by an announcement from Goldman Sachs, America’s second-largest investment bank, that its economists had raised the odds of a recession to 45 percent, representing the second time in a week that it has increased its forecast.

    The post Will Trump’s Tariffs Trigger A Second Great Depression? appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Labor Fights Back Against Trump’s Medical Care And Research Cuts

    Hundreds of organized workers, representing a variety of unions including the United Auto Workers (UAW), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the National Educational Association (NEA), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), among other groups, took to the streets in demonstrations across the country opposing planning Trump administration cuts to the National Institutes of Health.

    The post Labor Fights Back Against Trump’s Medical Care And Research Cuts appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Why the Elitists and Many Americans Applaud Trump’s Tariffs

    Donald J. Trump is reinstating protectionist rhetoric, using tariffs as a tool for reindustrialization, political pressure, and wealth redistribution, while the American elite continues to support him, despite the potentially devastating effects on the global economy.

    Is Trump turning his tariffs against the United States’ historic allies? One doesn’t have to be a genius to see that. At the same time, the local elite stands by Trump, seeing him as a savior, even when stock market indices on Wall Street fall or the competitiveness of American businesses declines.

    Why did America have to resort to tariffs (taxes on imports)? The reason is simple: The US owes huge amounts of money. Many countries earn significant amounts from trade with the US and then, use that revenue to buy up some of the US debt (see: China). The total debt is $36 trillion and requires over a trillion dollars a year to service it! At the same time, the US spends 35% more than its government revenues annually, which increases the federal budget deficit and adds new debt every year. The amounts are unimaginable… while Americans save very little.

    As is well known, the way tariffs are imposed causes disruption and chaos, as they are mainly retaliatory measures. Is this some kind of solution that “returns America” to the 19th century? Maybe. But back then we had high tariffs and low taxes.

    How does the average American view the tariffs imposed by the 47th President? Americans elected Trump for many reasons. He said from the beginning what he would do, so what is happening is not surprising. A very large part of society in the US believes that he is leading the country on the right path. They believe that his moves, both domestically and internationally, will pay off in the long run. Many believe that, at some point, they will benefit from these excessive moves.

    Trump has a lot of “weapons” in his quiver. He’s smart, and he knows how to use language. When he talks about “Liberation Day,” many Americans—even if they haven’t seen much change in their wallets yet—feel like someone is fighting for them. Despite the fact that products in the supermarket remain expensive, they believe that when tariffs of 34% are imposed on China, 20% on the EU, 24% on Japan and 27% on India, then “something is happening.”

    Thus, Americans will be forced to produce goods and consume American products, since – in an ideal scenario – these will be cheaper, of higher quality, and produced by American hands.

    How and why is Trump using tariffs? I wish he knew. He has been convinced that imposing them will benefit the economy in the long run and lead to the reindustrialization of America. That is, it will reverse the massive transfer of industries to Asia – mainly to China – that began under Reagan, with the support of the Republicans, in the 1980s. Then, the same Party that promoted globalization is today trying to overthrow it – and noisily so…

    Here, it should be noted that the moves of the American “deep state” at that time were aimed at exploiting China. However, the Chinese seized the opportunity and steadily and methodically began the “miracle” that their economic rise symbolizes today.

    However, with tariffs, Trump is turning historic allies against the US. However, he believes that tariffs give him great negotiating power. In other words, by imposing tariffs, he is trying to revoke them if the country on which he imposed the tariffs has achieved what he wanted. It is as if he is playing chess with tariffs for various geopolitical benefits (energy, rare earths, real estate deals for his family, etc.).

    If his advisors see how a new 1929 is about to begin, then he will take them back immediately. Or, it may be too late, because a new global recession will have begun. Perhaps, then, it will be too late. But again, “the tariff game” is a tool for reshaping American hegemony in the world. And it is certainly also a means of redistributing wealth, especially if the “difficult reindustrialization” is achieved. (Note: At some point, after many hours, he paused tariffs on many countries, but left tariffs on China, raising them, first to 125% and later to 145%!)

    Ultimately, tariffs are “psychological ash” in the eyes of the country’s friends and enemies, and a temporary psychological solution for Americans. Will they ever react? Perhaps, after a year, strong reactions will begin to arise with what he is doing, when the poor, pensioners and the lower classes will have been mainly affected by the increases in consumer goods… That is, those who helped him get elected!

    Until then, the elite and many Americans (thankfully not all) will have fun, loving their Emperor…

    The post Why the Elitists and Many Americans Applaud Trump’s Tariffs first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Xi Warns US Will Isolate Itself

    Xi warns US will isolate itself Chinese President Xi Jinping. ©  Ken Ishii – Pool/Getty Images

    The United States risks isolating itself by pursuing unilateral trade restrictions, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Friday during a visit of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to Beijing.

    The administration of US President Donald Trump has launched an escalating tariff war with China, imposing a total of 145% in duties on Chinese imports this week. Beijing has retaliated by hiking tariffs on American goods to 125%.

    “There are no winners in the tariff war and standing against the world ultimately results in self-isolation,” Xi said, as cited by Xinhua news agency.

    Xi called on China and the European Union to “jointly resist unilateral bullying” in order to protect their legitimate rights and interests, and uphold international rules and order.

    Global tariff war: Key developments

    The EU, which has been targeted with a 20% tariff by the US, has warned of significant global economic repercussions and has vowed to take countermeasures. Earlier this week, Trump declared a 90-day pause on reciprocal duties for most US trading partners, including the EU, allowing a window for negotiation.

    Brussels has adopted a policy of “de-risking” towards Chinese imports, balancing protective trade measures such as tariffs on electric vehicles with efforts to maintain constructive economic relations.

    The Chinese president also stated that regardless of changes in the external environment, the country would remain steadfast, focused, and would efficiently manage its own affairs.

    “For over seven decades, China’s growth has been fueled by self-reliance and hard work, never depending on favors from others and never backing down in the face of unreasonable suppression,” Xi explained.

    Trump argues that the increased duties are needed to address trade imbalances and stop China from “ripping off the USA.” Earlier this week, he opined that the “proud” Chinese would have to “make a deal at some point.”

    China has slammed Trump’s “abnormally high tariffs” on Chinese products as “unilateral bullying and coercion.” The move by the US president represents “a serious violation of international economic and trade rules, as well as of basic economic laws and common sense,” Beijing stressed.

    The trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies has disrupted global markets, sent oil prices to four-year lows and caused concerns over global supply chains.

    The post Xi Warns US Will Isolate Itself first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Trump Advisor Reveals Tariff Strategy

    The top economic advisor to President Donald Trump has revealed that Washington is using tariffs as leverage to try to force countries to pay the United States to help it maintain its global empire.

    The chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers, Stephen Miran, delivered a speech on April 7 in which he outlined the Trump administration’s tariff strategy. An official transcript of his remarks was published by the White House.

    Miran claimed that the United States provides two main “global public goods”: one, a “security umbrella” overseen by the US military; and two, the dollar and Treasury securities, which are used as the main reserve asset in the international financial system.

    The post Trump Advisor Reveals Tariff Strategy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Dara Lind on Criminalizing Immigrants

     


    Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).

     

    Intercept: Support Us Search for: Politics Justice War on Gaza Technology Environment Immigration Support Us Special Investigations Voices Podcasts Videos Documents About Contact Us More Ways to Donate Impact & Reports Join Newsletter Jobs Become a Source © THE INTERCEPT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Terms of Use Privacy Politics Justice War on Gaza Technology Environment Immigration About Support Us Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation

    Intercept (4/8/25)

    This week on CounterSpin: We’re learning from Jonah Valdez at the Intercept that the Trump administration is now revoking visas and immigration statuses of hundreds of international students under the Student Exchange and Visitor Program—not just those active in pro-Palestinian advocacy, or those with criminal records of any sort. It is, says one immigration attorney, “a concerted effort to go after people who are from countries and religions that the Trump administration wants to get out of the country.”

    It is disheartening to see a report like one in Newsweek, about how Trump “loves the idea” of sending US citizens to prisons outside of US jurisdiction, that feels it has to start by explaining “Why It Matters.” But things as they are, we have to be grateful for what straight reporting we get—at a time when some outlets are signing on to shut up if it buys them a moment of peace, which it won’t—and a moment in which staying informed, paying attention, learning what’s happening and how we can stop it, is what we have to work with.

    Dara Lind is senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. She joins us this week on the show.

     

    Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at coverage of the Hands Off! protests.

  • Trump on Shaky Legal Ground With Executive Order Targeting State Climate Laws

    President Donald Trump continued dismantling U.S. climate policy this week when he directed the Justice Department to challenge state laws aimed at addressing the crisis — a campaign legal scholars called unconstitutional and climate activists said is sure to fail. The president, who has called climate change a “hoax,” issued an executive order restricting state laws that he claimed have…

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  • Penguin blamed for helicopter crash in revenge for Trump tariffs…?!

    A penguin is being blamed for a helicopter crash in South Africa.

    Penguin blamed for helicopter crash

    The crash happened not long after take off from Bird Island near the Eastern Cape back in January.

    No one was hurt, including, most importantly, the penguin.

    Whilst most of the mainstream media is reporting that the penguin caused the crash, it is clear that it was in fact, human error.

    The incident report stated:

    The pilot conducted a risk assessment of the flight; however, he omitted to include the carriage (transportation) of the penguin on-board. Therefore, the risk assessment procedure was deemed not in line with Part 127.07.34 of the CAR. The passenger seated on the left front seat placed the cardboard box containing the penguin on his lap and secured it with his hands.

    It also recorded a ‘ disregard for standard operating procedures’.

    The people to blame here were the researcher and the pilot – but as usual, shitty humans will do anything to pass the buck for their own mistakes. And much of the media are lapping it up.

    Critically endangered

    The penguin in question was an African Penguin which inhabits the coasts of South Africa and Namibia. They grow up to 68cm and weigh around 4kg. It is unclear why the researcher took the penguin on the helicopter. The species is critically endangered. This means the researcher should have taken even more care when handling and transporting the penguin.

    There used to be millions of African Penguins – however, today there are less than 32,000 left in the wild. That is a mere 1% of the original population.

    Scientists estimate that the bird could completely disappear from the wild in less than 4,000 days without urgent conservation efforts.

    Penguins causing a helicopter crash? Nature is fighting back.

    The incident happened in January. However – the report has only just surfaced which means social media users are left wondering if this is revenge for Trumps penguin tariffs.

    After Trump’s recent tariff stunt on Heard Island’s penguin population, the Marine One chopper pilot might want to fly with one eye open.

    Penguins are meant to be flightless birds – but I think the little guy just wanted to prove a point. Don’t let labels define you and all that.

    The killer whales are taking down the yachts, and the Penguins are taking down the helicopters. Nature is finally fighting back against our capitalist, climate-wrecking system.

    Feature image via The Canary 

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘BE COOL!’ says Trump as his billionaire mates make a killing off his corrupt trade war

    In yet another erratic pivot, Donald Trump hit the brakes on his cataclysmic tariffs, in a move that raised eyebrows as his billionaire buddies cashed in when the prices were low.

    But whilst many of the world’s poor people were fearing the catastrophic impact this might have on their finances and businesses, Trump instead took to his Truth Social platform to tell his followers to:

    BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before.

    This was all despite global markets tanking.

    Trump tariffs: a ‘GREAT TIME TO BUY’ for billionaire capitalists

    As the markets opened at the New York Stock Exchange, Trump practically hailed a golden era of corruption as he told his followers:

    THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.

    Laughing and ridiculing the American public, a video hours later emerged of Trump talking to his wealthy pals, as he pointed to them and said:

    He made $2.5 billion today and he made $900 million. That’s not bad.

    Not even hiding the fact that this was never about tariffs but simply market manipulation, the oligarchy was yesterday in full view of the public, as its ugly head emerged from the shadows.

    Just four hours later, the president changed his mind, he paused and lowered tariffs on goods from most nations for 90 days.

    Suddenly, stocks and shares were soaring, and social media erupted into a frenzy, as journalists and members of the public questioned Trump’s “pump and dump” scheme.

    Republican US representative for Georgia, and close Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, had disclosed to her fans that she had made several purchases in stocks and shares on 3 and 4 April. These were two days that the markets were at a critically low point, due to Trump setting out his reciprocal tariff plan on 2 April. Conveniently shares in Amazon and Apple rose by 12% and 15% on 9 April, allowing Greene to cash in.

    The S&P 500 blue chip index had closed by more than 9% whilst stocks rose in Asia and Europe, with the FTSE 100 index rising by 4%.

    Insider trading: anything goes in Trump’s America

    In any other democracy, this would be classed as a criminal offence, or named “insider trading”, but for Donald Trump, who is treated like God incarnate, this appears completely acceptable.

    Democratic Senator, Adam Schiff, has called for an investigation into the alleged insider trading, as he raised grave concerns over people buying up the stocks when the prices were low before they rose again.

    Economically, diplomatically, and politically illiterate, Trump’s on-and-off-like-a-tap tariffs, create an environment where corruption is able to breed in the petri dish swamp that is the White House.

    Yet again shedding a light upon Trump’s parasitic administration Schiff stated, “these constant gyrations in policy provide dangerous opportunities for insider trading”.

    “Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip flop ahead of time? Did anyone buy or sell stocks and profit at the public’s expense?”.

    This was followed by democrat Steven Horsford’s remarks as he expressed his frustration at the Trump regime “WTF! WHO’s in charge”. “The empathy I have is for the American people, whose wellbeing and livelihoods are being affected. This is not a game. This is real life”.

    UK feeling the effects

    With the UK economy already in a grave state of health due to chancellor Rachel Reeve’s disastrous budget and callous cuts to benefits, one thing is clear, the poorest people in our society will bear the brunt of yet more economic instability whilst the rich take advantage of market turmoil.

    The Bank of England (BoE) has warned that higher government bond yields would “reduce their capacity to respond to future shocks”.

    British economic growth is therefore likely to be severely impacted by these on and off tariffs, as the trade war continues to haunt countries across the globe.

    Furthermore, the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said that the shift in geopolitical relations from both an economic standpoint, and the vast rifts between traditional allies, has reduced the likelihood of trading partners wishing to co-operate.

    Hence:

    the probability of adverse events and the potential severity of the impact have also risen.

    It is therefore clear that Keir Starmer and Reeves must wake up and smell the coffee; the US is no longer an ally but rather a country that wishes to inflict peril and confusion, whenever it is given the opportunity.

    Trump: world leaders lining up to kiss ‘my a** to negotiate’

    At the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington, Trump appeared to be gushing over the leverage that he holds over the rest of the globe.

    Gleefully mocking the weakness of world leaders, who appear to be submissively bowing down to Trump in the hope that he might be merciful, he said:

    They are calling us up, kissing my a** to negotiate…Please, Sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything Sir.

    Despite this, world leaders will continue to attempt to appease Trump, but they must be reminded what happened when a certain dictator was appeased back in the 1930s; he soon became a genocidal war criminal.

    Import prices will inevitably rise, and domestic products will simply inflate in price, and even the rich billionaire tech bros are beginning to have serious doubts about Trump’s policies.

    This of course includes Elon Musk, the former big pal and bestie of Trump, who had until recently enjoyed tampering with the government’s finances.

    But as his Tesla sales plummeted, and the tariffs came into fruition, the tech bro saw his finances plummet by billions and it was announced that he would depart from DOGE in early May.

    He has recently had a very public spat with Peter Navarro, a member of Trump’s cabinet who is dubbed in political circles as the “architect“ of Trump’s catastrophic tariffs. Navarro called Musk a “car assembler” as he criticised his Tesla company with Musk then responding to this by calling him, “dumber than a sack of bricks”.

    Trump ‘abusive’ tariffs on China

    Aside from the rift between Trump and some members of his possie, tensions have also deepened with China.

    Despite pausing the tariffs for 90 days for other countries, he has kept them for China, as he set the rate to 125% earlier on Wednesday, accusing them of showing a “lack of respect”.

    This therefore means that every single country with existing tariffs, will receive the lowered rate of 10% except for China.

    In response, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian hit back and said that the US uses bullying practices and that it:

    continues to impose tariffs on China in an abusive manner.

    The spokesman also said that if America hopes to resolve any of these problems through negotiation, the US must show:

    an attitude of equality, mutual respect, and reciprocity

    Speaking to journalists in the oval office about his trade war with Xi Jinping, he said he believed that a deal could be struck with China:

    we’ll end up making a very good deal.

    But whilst he dubbed the Chinese president “one of the smartest people in the world”, he warned the country of their extensive weaponry:

    we have weapons that nobody even knows.

    Of course, it shows that Trump is clearly enjoying the power struggle between the two world powers.

    The ‘art of the deal’ is only for the rich elite

    However, despite the reversal of this decision, this is inevitably a time of grave instability. The Bank of England has warned that the:

    Major shift in the nature and predictability of global trading arrangements could harm financial stability by depressing growth.

    Whilst Karoline Leavitt and MAGA die-hards continue to argue and portray this move as a success for Trump, calling it the “art of the deal”, the deal is only for the elite few who took advantage of the volatility of the stock market as a chance to get even richer.

    Meanwhile the poor people of the world are left to suffer under a capitalist system that benefits the few, not the many.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Megan Miley

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cybersecurity industry silent as Trump turns on SentinelOne

    The cybersecurity industry has gone mostly quiet after President Donald Trump took action against one of its prominent members. President Trump on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of security clearances of SentinelOne executives and employees, part of a campaign to use the might of the US government to crush his political opponents. SentinelOne’s offence was hiring…

    The post Cybersecurity industry silent as Trump turns on SentinelOne appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • China Retaliates With 84% Tariff As Trump’s Trade War Escalates

    On Wednesday, April 9, Trump announced that he is raising the tariffs on China to 125%. Earlier that day, China raised its tariff on all American imports to 84% in response to the US raising the total tariffs on Chinese exports to 104% on Monday. The new rates will be effective from Thursday, the Chinese state council said in a brief statement.

    China also issued a white paper on Wednesday about its trade relations with the US. Published on the same day that Donald Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” regime went into effect, the white paper refutes his claims of a massive trade deficit with China.

    The post China Retaliates With 84% Tariff As Trump’s Trade War Escalates appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • PATCO’s Lessons For This Crisis

    Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order revoking the collective bargaining rights of more than 700,000 federal workers is the largest act of union-busting in U.S. history.

    The closest historical parallel is Ronald Reagan’s busting and decertification of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. When 12,000 air traffic controllers initiated an illegal strike on August 3, 1981, and stayed out in defiance of Reagan’s ultimatum, the federal government came down on them with all its might.

    Many PATCO leaders were arrested, the union was bankrupted and decertified, and the strikers were permanently replaced and banned for life from returning to the Federal Aviation Administration.

    The post PATCO’s Lessons For This Crisis appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘This Is an All-Out War on the First Amendment’: CounterSpin interview with Jessica González on Trump’s FCC

    Janine Jackson interviewed Free Press’s Jessica González about Trump’s FCC for the April 4, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

     

    Free Press: How FCC Chairman Carr Has Fueled Trump's Authoritarian Takeover

    Free Press (3/18/25)

    Janine Jackson: There are reasons that the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, is an opaque entity for many people. The fact that there is a federal agency setting the terms for media companies’ operations conflicts with many Americans’ understanding of the press corps as a group of brave, independent individuals looking to tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.

    There are, in fact, many community-supported, differently structured news outlets doing just that. But, listeners know, the big major papers and stations and channels we may look to for news are owned and sponsored by big profit-driven corporations that share the status quo–supporting interests of other big profit-driven corporations.

    In allowing these companies’ increased conglomeration, and sidelining their nominal public interest obligations, the FCC has long played a role in determining whose voices are heard and whose are not. But maybe not quite as loud, as proudly prejudiced and bare-knuckled a role as right now.

    Our guest reports how Trump’s appointed FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has got straight to dangerous work, undermining free speech and press freedom right out of the gate. Jessica González is co-CEO at the public advocacy group Free Press. She joins us now by phone from Los Angeles. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Jessica González.

    Jessica González: Thanks for having me, Janine.

    FAIR: How Trump Will Seek Revenge on the Press

    FAIR.org (11/14/24)

    JJ: As you have noted, Brendan Carr is not so much regulating as delivering on Trump’s threats to punish anyone who reports critically about him, including by giving any space to anyone who opposes him politically. It’s beyond the beyond, and we see there’s no piece of government that MAGA will not weaponize.

    And so appeals to gentility, and “let’s agree to disagree,” are just not serving the public, not serving marginalized communities or democracy, even a little bit.

    So what do you have your eye on right now? What should we know is not “maybe going to happen” with a Trump-led FCC, but actually happening?

    JG: You know, Janine, I remember 10, 15 years ago when the concerns we had about the FCC were structural in nature. They were allowing runaway media consolidation, which was resulting in fewer voices, and particularly fewer voices of color, controlling the narratives that we were hearing on broadcast media. Or we were concerned about net neutrality, making sure that internet service providers were not allowed to stop or slow down the traffic online, so that everyone had an equal opportunity to be heard. These, of course, were free speech issues, but they weren’t quite as in-focus threats to free expression as what we’re seeing now out of the Brendan Carr FCC under Donald Trump.

    Axios: Conservatives cry foul as ABC fact-checks debate

    Axios (9/11/24)

    Brendan Carr has systematically gone after broadcasters who have given Trump’s political opponents airtime, or who have factchecked the president. For instance, in his first week in office, he revived three out of the four claims against broadcasters that the FCC chair under Biden had dismissed as politically biased. He left in place the dismissal of a complaint against Fox News, and revitalized the complaints against ABC, NBC and CBS, under claims that are specious, to say the least.

    It’s very clear that his intent is to punish broadcasters who have broadcast opposing viewpoints—in ABC‘s case, factchecked the president at a debate before the election, in CBS’s case, they aired on 60 Minutes a recording of Kamala Harris that was edited as per normal standards in broadcast. We saw Brendan Carr going after NBC when they aired an SNL segment with Kamala Harris, even though they gave the president airtime the next day during a NASCAR race. This appears to be a clear and systematic effort to weaponize the FCC against broadcasters whose political speech, or just their news reporting, the president and his allies don’t like.

    Another case in San Francisco is an investigation that the FCC chair has opened into KCBS radio station, where he is complaining that KCBS aired information about an ICE raid that was happening in the area. This is clearly First Amendment‒protected speech that these broadcasters are—you know, we expect them to cover the news, that’s presumably part of a public interest obligation. But the FCC chair is going after any political speech or any news reporting or any speech, frankly, that the president and his allies don’t like.

    Jessica Gonzalez

    Jessica Gonzalez: “They are directing the reporters to be careful, because they fear government retribution for their speech.”

    This is chilling. We heard from FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, who’s a Democrat, that she has visited radio and television broadcasters across the country, and is already hearing that they are directing the reporters to be careful, because they fear government retribution for their speech. And this is exactly the type of environment where authoritarianism thrives. Not only is Brendan Carr going after broadcasters, which are clearly regulated entities under the FCC’s scope of work, he’s also, in his diatribe in Project 2025, threatened to go after social media companies, and forced them to leave up hate and lies.

    So this is an all-out war on the First Amendment. It’s chilling. And this is the type of stuff that our allies in Hungary tell us they were seeing before Orban took power. A couple weeks ago, we had a convening with András Biró-Nagy from Hungary, and Maria Ressa from the Philippines, who tracked Duterte’s authoritarian takeover of the government, and they were pointing out how similar the attacks on free speech in the United States look to the attacks on free speech in their countries, the similar tactics of quashing dissent, dehumanizing people, of going after minority groups. This is really clearly giving us great concern.

    JJ: I will just say, finally, and thank you, we are gripping on with our fingernails, and thank you for acknowledging lessons from other places. We’re so committed to US exceptionalism, but we actually need to be listening to other countries right now.

    But if we are dreaming, if we are not just trying to hold on to scraps, are there policies, is there legislation, is there a vision that we can be looking to as a template, imagining that we are surviving this moment?

    JG: Yeah, I mean, I imagine we are surviving this moment, and I’m looking to what you’re doing, Janine, and what thousands of other reporters are doing throughout the country, to hold the power to account, be a Fourth Estate. And we’re looking at state policies, and maybe one day federal policies, to expand community journalism, noncommercial journalism that is not relying on moneyed interest to call the shots, that’s really just helping people understand what is happening when people take action when they don’t like what they see.

    FAIR: ‘When Hasn’t Journalism Been in Crisis for Black People?’

    FAIR.org (5/3/24)

    And so we have, with the Media Power Collaborative that Free Press is helping convene, and with the Media 2070 project that my colleagues are convening as well, that holds attacks on communities of color to account, and that repairs the harm that’s being done, not just now, but that historically has been done through our media system, what does it look like? This is what the Media 2070 project is queuing up for us. What does it look like to have a media system that loves Black people? The Media Power Collaborative is really looking at state-based policies to make sure that there is more public money for noncommercial journalism.

    And so these are the types of models that are infusing new reporters on the ground. There was a bill in California that actually didn’t pass, but there was a budget line item for $25 million that went to UC Berkeley here. And we have local reporters embedding inside of newsrooms that are covering city halls, that are covering the state house. This is bringing much-needed capacity to track what’s actually happening in local civics to participate in our democracy.

    JJ: All right, I’m going to end right on that note. We’ve been speaking with Jessica González; she’s co-CEO at  Free Press. They’re online at FreePress.net. Jessica González, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

    JG: Thanks for having me, Janine.

     

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • House Passes Bill Limiting Judges’ Ability to Place Injunctions on Trump Orders

    On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill aiming to curtail federal judges’ ability to issue nationwide restraining orders — an action that, if successful, would flout hundreds of years of judicial case law and precedent. Judges have always had the power to impose nationwide injunctions on local, state or federal governments and other entities…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Is Trump really going to declare ‘marshall law’ (or ‘martial law’ if you’re not MAGA)…?

    In a landscape often marred by disinformation, recent social media chatter has ignited concerns around a rumour involving US president Donald Trump and the potential declaration of martial law. Specifically, a number of users have shared a prediction claiming that on April 20, 2025, Trump may invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, effectively allowing for military control over civilian governance during times of unrest.

    Martial law/marshall law…

    The origins of this rumour can be traced back to a series of articles on the publishing platform medium. The author, who goes by the handle Aletheisthenes, has put forward alarming projections of future events, warning that this declaration could lead to a cascade of oppressive state measures, including the arrest of journalists and politicians, restricted movement at state borders, and postponed elections.

    Aletheisthenes outlined concerns in their writing, stating:

    On April 20, 2025, the United States may initiate its final steps into authoritarian rule.

    This echoes other fears that have permeated discussions during Trump’s presidency, especially in light of his previous comments suggesting he considered invoking martial law during times of social upheaval.

    These anxieties resurfaced prominently in communications that highlighted an executive order issued by Trump on January 20, 2025, which declared a national emergency at the southern US border and required reports from the secretaries of defence and homeland security within 90 days. This timeframe points directly to 20 April, leading some to speculate that the day will mark a significant turning point in U.S. governance.

    Trump: no word as yet

    However, as of 10 April there has been no official confirmation or substantive evidence supporting these claims from the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, or the White House, which raises questions about the credibility of the rumour. Inquiries sent to these entities have gone unanswered as of the current reporting.

    These discussions are not merely rooted in speculation; they tap into a broader narrative of fear and distrust cultivated throughout Trump’s time in office. There is an irony in the fear-mongering coming from a space often associated with conspiracy theories.

    One reader reached out to Snopes, voicing concern over the rampant discussion online regarding Trump’s supposed plans for martial law. Another noted the potential for the executive order to set the stage for drastic legal changes.

    Yet, it is worth noting that previous analyses by legal experts, such as Joseph Nunn of the Brennan Center for Justice, clarify that the Insurrection Act does not give the authority to declare martial law, which is typically understood as military oversight over civilian governance.

    In his response to the examination of these predictions, Aletheisthenes brushes aside legal objections, asserting:

    Trump has a history of testing what he can and can’t do.

    This highlights a prevailing sentiment among those wary of Trump’s disregard for established norms that govern democratic processes.

    Martial law: not too far from the truth…?

    Reality may differ from the predictions made by Aletheisthenes, as the author openly acknowledges the shifting language in their writings. “I decided to tone it down,” reflecting a tactical pivot in communication, as accusations of inciting panic circulate.

    This begs the question of how much fear is justified in a political climate where the former president has previously flirted with ideas akin to martial law.

    In historical context, the Insurrection Act of 1807 was created to allow presidential authority in quelling insurrections. Its last invocation was in 1992, during unrest provoked by police violence against Black communities.

    Today, discussions around the Act arise amid a broader conversation about civil rights, racial justice, and the preparedness of American governance to respond to internal crises equitably.

    As 20 April looms closer, the rumour of even harder authoritarian governance lingers, with detail and conjecture fuelling the anxiety surrounding Trump’s already far-right administration.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.