'Blow your mind': Experts expose new 'major math error' in Trump trade formula

Jennifer Bowers Bahney
April 8, 2025

RAW STORY


CNN's John Berman, Dr. Kevin Corinth, and Dr. Stan Veuger (CNN screenshot)

Experts from a conservative think tank are challenging "bad math" in President Donald Trump's complicated-looking formula explaining why he thinks tariffs are a good idea.

CNN's John Berman exclaimed, "This is going to blow your mind here!" when introducing two economists with The American Enterprise Institute who pointed out the "major math error" to the Trump administration.

Dr. Stan Veuger explained that the administration "picked the wrong number" based on the results of a research paper to fill in one of the Greek symbols used "to make their approach look a little more sophisticated." The result made each tariff "four times bigger" than they would have been had they used the right number.

"I don't think much of the approach makes sense, even conceptually," Veuger said. "But if we're going to take their approach seriously, if we're going to say, 'We're going to base our tariffs, our entire international trading system, on this formula,' they have to put in the right numbers and do the calculation correctly."

Berman asked, "Have you taken this to them? Have they acknowledged that they have a bum number in here?"

"They have not disagreed with us on the substance," Veuger answered. "In fact, what we've seen is that senior members of the administration — Steve Miran, yesterday, who's the chairman of the council of economic advisers, Scott Bessent this morning, who is the treasury secretary — they have both said, 'We had nothing to do with this formula. That was other people in the administration.'

"Normally, if you're convinced of the accuracy, the wisdom of your policies, you do not point fingers at other people in the administration and say, 'They came up with this, we did not.'"

Dr. Kevin Corinth added, "It's important to point out that we're talking about corrected tariffs. These are not the correct tariffs; we're just saying if you apply their formula correctly, they should have been a fourth as high as what they're saying they should be. But we are not at all endorsing this approach...To say that we should only base these tariffs on the trade deficit is just bad economics."


Watch the clip below or at this link via CNN.

'Horrible for jobs': Shipping expert warns Trump on course to destroy US maritime commerce

Matthew Chapman
April 7, 2025 
RAW STORY


FILE PHOTO: A cargo ship full of containers is seen at the port of Oakland as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs, in Oakland, California, U.S., February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

President Donald Trump has already perturbed markets and boosted the risk of a recession with his draconian worldwide tariff scheme — but there's another plan from his administration, less noticed by the media, that could also devastate U.S. markets, said Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen, and it concerns expensive new fees on container vessels bringing goods into America.

Specifically, wrote Petersen, "On April 17th the U.S. Trade Representative's office is expected to impose fees of up to $1.5M per port call for ships made in China and for $500k to $1M if the ocean carrier owns a single ship made in China or even has one on order from a Chinese shipyard."

This mandate, which comes as a controversial dockworkers' union just secured a promise, with Trump's blessing, to restrict automation at U.S. ports and reduce their competitiveness, is going to decimate U.S. trade and the local economies of second-tier coastal cities for a number of reasons, Petersen continued.

"Ocean carriers have announced that to reduce the fees they will skip the smaller ports like Seattle, Oakland, Boston, Mobile, Baltimore, New Orleans, etc. Some carriers have said they'll just move the capacity serving the U.S. to other trade lanes altogether," wrote Petersen. "This would be horrible for jobs in and around those ports, and really bad for companies, both importers and exporters, using those ports. Huge extra costs will be incurred as trucks and trains run hundreds of extra miles to the main ports on each cost."

Meanwhile, he noted, large ports like New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, will be unable to handle all the extra traffic of ships skipping their old stops at smaller ports and delivering directly to them, with the result that they are "likely to become congested, similar to what we saw during Covid."

But perhaps the "craziest" aspect of the proposal, wrote Petersen, is a mandate for 15 percent of all U.S. exports to travel on an American-made ship by 2032.

"There are only 23 of American made and crewed container ships in the world today, and they all service domestic ocean freight (Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, etc). They're all tiny compared to today's mega ships, and they're not even sailing to overseas ports," wrote Petersen. "The U.S. did not produce any container ships in 2024. And the number we produce in any given year rounds to zero. The reason is that American made container ships of 3,000 TEUs cost the same price as the modern container ships from China of 24,000 TEUs. One shipyard in China made more commercial ships last year than the total number the U.S. has produced since World War Two."

"Given what just happened with the new tariffs tanking global equities markets, it would be crazy for the USTR to go through with this rule. If we want the U.S. to be competitive in global manufacturing, we need world-class port infrastructure and logistics connectivity," concluded Petersen. "In the meantime, U.S. manufacturers who have just had massive new tariffs placed on components and machinery sourced from abroad should brace themselves for impact because all indications are that this rule is coming on April 17th."

Alarm sounded as 4,100 factory workers laid off amid Trump policy chaos

REUTERS/Tim Aeppel
Workers assemble an Ariens brand lawn mower at a company plant in Brillion, Wisconsin, U.S., March 5, 2025.

Jon Queally

April 06, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

Congressman Ro Khanna is raising the alarm over mass layoffs in the U.S. economy resulting from the failed economic policies of President Donald Trump, including over 4,000 factory workers who lost their jobs this week due to firings or plant closures.

On Thursday, automaker Stellantis, citing conditions created by Trump's tariffs, announced temporary layoffs for 900 workers, represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW). "The affected U.S. employees," reportedCNN, "work at five different Midwest plants: the Warren Stamping and Sterling Stamping plants in Michigan, as well as the Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant, all in Kokomo, Indiana."

In a social media thread on Saturday night, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—a lawmaker who has advocating loudly, including in books and in Congress, for an industrialization policy that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States—posted a litany of other layoffs announced recently as part of the economic devastation and chaos unleashed by Trump as well as conditions that reveal how vulnerable U.S. workers remain.

"This week," Khann wrote, "19 factories had mass layoffs, 15 closed, and 4,134 factory workers across America lost their jobs. Cleveland-Cliffs laid off 1,200 workers in Michigan and Minnesota as they deal with the impact of Trump's tariffs on steel and auto imports."

"We need jobs and currently at this time, the majority of the companies that we work with and represent our members at are not hiring." —Mark DePaoli, UA

For union leaders representing those workers at Cleveland-Cliffs, they said "chaos" was the operative word. "Chaos. You, know? A lot of questions. You've got a lot of people who worked there a long time that are potentially losing their job," Bill Wilhelm, a servicing representative and editor with UAW Local 600, told local ABC News affiliate WXYZ-Channel 7.

The United Auto Workers says the layoff fund set aside for those losing their jobs won't last long and find them new jobs of that quality will not be easy. "Our first concern will be to look around at all the companies where we have members and see if we can find jobs," said the local's 1st vice president Mark DePaoli. "I mean, jobs are going to be the key. We need jobs and currently at this time, the majority of the companies that we work with and represent our members at are not hiring."

The pain of workers in families in Dearborn, as indicated by Khanna's thread, is just the tip of the iceberg. In post after post, he cataloged a stream of new layoffs impacting workers nationwide and across various sectors:

Poultry distributor, Perdue Farms, laid off 433 workers this week in Monterey, Tennessee.
As part of mass layoffs to the US branches, tractor manufacturer John Deere laid off 9 workers from its Ankeny, Iowa, facility. The company has also voiced concerns over the impact of Trump's tariffs on production.
Semiconductor manufacturer Summit Interconnect closed in Santa Ana, California, costing 74 people their jobs. Congress needs to invest in manufacturing to guide the U.S. into leading semiconductor manufacturing.
Automotive and industrial power transmission manufacturer, Bando USA Inc. cut 65 jobs from their facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Coal manufacturer Wilson Creek Energy LLC cut 332 jobs after closing their plant in Friedens, PA. Another 93 workers were cut when the Grantsville, Maryland plant closed.
In Sumner, Washington pipe manufacturer Advanced Drainage Systems closed, costing 54 employees their jobs.
Electrical equipment manufacturer Sensata Technologies closed in Carpinteria, California, resulting in 57 employees losing their jobs. The company is closing to offset the rising costs of inflation.
In San Jose, California, electronics manufacturer InvenSense Inc. laid off 55 people due to new market conditions in the broadening tech industry.
Battery manufacturer Quantumscape Battery Inc. laid off 53 workers in San Jose, California, as part of a restructuring effort.
Medical device manufacturer Biosense Webster Inc. cut 9 jobs when it permanently closed its Los Gatos, California, facility.
Biotech manufacturer ImmunityBio, Inc. laid off 9 employees from its El Segundo, California, facility and one from its facility in Culver City, California.
Food processor Del Monte Foods, Inc. in Hannaford, California, cut 378.
In Agawam, Massachusetts, bakery wholesaler Connecticut Pie, LLC DBA Diana's Bakery laid off 229 workers.
Poultry plant AlaTrade Foods laid off 165 employees at its Phenix City, Alabama, facility.
Food products manufacturer, Rich Products Corporation laid off 139 workers after closing its Santa Fe Springs facility in California to offset rising costs.
In Townson, Maryland, sports apparel manufacturer Fila USA, Inc. laid off 112 workers. The company also laid off 18 employees from their facility in Curtis Bay, Maryland.
Engineering services company, S&B Engineers and Constructors, Ltd. in Kingsport, Tennessee, cut 112 workers.
In Bridgeview, Illinois, 88 workers lost their jobs when sustainable packaging company Smurfit Westrock closed.
Chemical manufacturer Syzygy Plasmonics, conducted layoffs in two Houston, Texas, facilities, cutting 68 jobs total.
Packaging products manufacturer Pregis closed in San Antonio, California. Forty-five people lost their jobs.
In Longview, Texas, construction supplies manufacturer S & B Engineers and Constructors cut 43 jobs.
Board game manufacturer, Edaron, LLC closed in South Hadley, Massachusetts, cutting 24 jobs.
In Holliston, Massachusetts, cannabis manufacturer Pharma Cann laid off 19 workers.
Medical management facility, Prime MSO, LLC closed in Encino, California, costing 6 people their jobs.

With public sector workers being fired in massive numbers nationwide due to the blitzkrieg unleashed by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, private sector workers are no stranger to mass layoffs within a U.S. economy dominated by corporate interests and union density still at historic lows.

Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute who has been sounding the alarm for years about the devastation associated with mass layoffs, wrote recently about how the situation is even worse than he previously understood. On top of existing corporate greed and the stock buyback phenomena driving many of the mass layoffs in the private sector, Trump's mismanagement of tariff and trade policy is almost certain to make things worse, triggering more job losses in addition to higher costs on consumer goods.

In order to combat Trump, Leopold wrote last month, "Democrats should take a page from Trump and put job protection on the top of their agenda. As tariffs bite and cause job destruction, the Democrats should show up and support those laid-off workers."

Instead of simply calling Trump's tariffs "insane," which many rightly have, the Democrats "should call them job-killing tariffs," advised Leopold. "As prices rise, they can blame Trump for that as well."

With Trump's economic policies coming into fuller view this, the picture is bleak for businesses large and small—and that means more pain for workers.

As Axios' Ben Berkowitz reported Saturday. "When everything gets more expensive everywhere because of tariffs, that starts a cycle for businesses, too — one that might end with layoffs, bankruptcies, and higher prices for the survivors' customers," he explained. "The cycle is just starting now, but the pain is immediate."

The "big picture," Berkowitz continued, is this:
The stock market is not the economy, but if you want a decent proxy for Main Street businesses, look at the Russell 2000, a broad measure of the stock market's small companies across industries.—It's down almost 20% this year alone.
—That in and of itself doesn't make a business turn the lights off, but it says something about public confidence in their prospects.
—"The market is like a real time poll ... this is going to impact all businesses in one way or another undoubtedly," Ken Mahoney of Mahoney Asset Management wrote Friday.

Khanna's Democratic colleague in the House, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, said the impacts of Trump's tariff and austerity policies are very real and already be felt in his district as he roasted Trump for having a reported golfing weekend as the global economy reels and American workers and retirees suffer:

On the question of silence and who will stand up for American workers—whether in the public or private sector—it's not clear who will emerge as their true defender.

"Imagine if federal worker unions and Democratic Party officials showed up at the plant gate of a company that was about to close its doors to finance hefty stock buybacks for its billionaire owners," Leopold wrote in early March. "A show of support for their fellow layoff victims and a unity message aimed at stopping billionaire job destruction would be simple to craft and easy to share. It would be news."

"Why aren't the Democrats doing this?" he asked.

Rand Paul mocks Trump's tariff policy: 'I have a trade deficit with my grocery store'

David Edwards
April 8, 2025

RAW STORY

Rand Paul. (CNBC/screen grab)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) mocked the way President Donald Trump calculated his so-called reciprocal tariffs by noting that trade deficits were not necessarily evidence of one side losing.

During a Tuesday interview on CNBC, Paul told conservative host Joe Kernen that Trump's tariff policy was "backwards and upside down."

"It's based on a fallacy," the senator explained. "And the fallacy is this, that somehow in a trade, someone must lose, that somehow when you trade with someone, there's a loser and someone's taking advantage of you and China's ripping you off or Japan's ripping you off."


"Every trade that occurs in the marketplace is mutually beneficial," he continued. "You could artificially do this accounting between countries and say, oh, trade deficit. Look at this trade deficit. But I have a trade deficit with my grocery store."

Kernen pointed out that some Democrats supported Paul's point of view while Republicans were largely silent.

"The support and praise from Republicans, you're saying that you're getting it, but these are individuals that you don't even want to be on the record for saying that," the CNBC host observed.

"It's a quiet whisper, and people come up to me in the hall," Paul replied. "They whisper in my ear, free trade is good. Keep going. Keep going. But they don't want to say it because of the politics of it."

Watch the video below from CNBC.

'Enormous risk': Experts alarmed as Musk's private security force deputized by US Marshals

SARAH BURNS

April 7, 2025

RAW STORY

U.S. Marshals Service alongside partner federal agencies and local law enforcement conduct enforcement operations focusing on state and local felony cases of homicide, sexual assault, robbery and assault during Operation North Star II (ONS II) in Columbus, Ohio, January 2023. USMS Director Ronald L. Davis launched ONS II, a month-long National Enforcement Initiative aimed at combating violent crime in nine cities: Albuquerque, N.M., Buffalo, N.Y., Cleveland, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, M.I., Jackson, Miss., Kansas City, M.O., Milwaukee, W.I., Oakland, C.A., and the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, all which have a significant rate of homicides and shootings. (U.S. Marshals Service photo by Bennie J. Davis III)


Tech billionaire Elon Musk's private security detail was deputized by the Marshals Service, alarming experts,  according to Mother Jones.

"The Marshals Service regularly deputizes people outside the agency—often local or state cops—to help with specific tasks for a set period of time," the report explained. "These deputized officers are known as special deputy marshals, and they usually have the power to make federal arrests, execute search warrants, serve subpoenas, and carry firearms in federal buildings, just like regular deputy marshals do."

Musk's team used them after a staffer in the Department of Government Efficiency told Marshals that Jan. 6 defendants weren't being released fast enough. A marshal "reportedly prodded judges," said MoJo.

Last month, The New York Times and the Washington Post reported that DOGE used the Marshals to break into the offices of a small federal agency, leading to "a frantic and 'traumatizing' scene," the report said.

It rattled MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who implied it was strange for a federal agency to turn on another, the report continued.

“We have reason to question whether the men reported as US marshals, now in multiple press accounts, are actually US marshals in the usual sense,” Maddow said.

The confusion is whether they were indeed marshals or if they were Musk's private security.

The Justice Department refused to give Maddow any information on the men's identities, but a nonprofit is now suing using the Freedom of Information Act.

"Even though federal policy allows the Marshals Service to deputize private actors, it’s rare for the agency to do so," Mother Jones said. "The former USMS officers I spoke with had never witnessed it happening. All the special deputy marshals" that one supervisory deputy marshal in New York until 2020 "interacted with were from law enforcement agencies like the NYPD."

“It’d be unusual to deputize someone who wasn’t a law enforcement officer or didn’t have the law enforcement experience required,” special deputy marshal James Meissner told Mother Jones.

There is an open question about whether Trump is politicizing the Marshals Service and if that could have "constitutional implications."

Rutgers University Law School professor David Noll, who studies private enforcement of the law, told Mother Jones that “deputizing purely private actors” is “not really a thing that’s been done in the 21st century or the 20th century."

“If you have a private security force that is exercising the power of the marshals, you have to start worrying about whether they are acting in the public interest and whether they understand the rules that apply to marshals,” Noll told the outlet.

Another expert agreed that alarm bells are ringing.

“The risk to people’s civil rights is enormous,” said Jonathan Smith, who helped lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Obama administration. Typically, when private forces gain policing power, he said, “there are real questions about who they’re accountable to and what rules they’re going to play by.”

Read the full report here.

DOJ accused of ‘abuse of power’ after sending armed US Marshals to whistleblower’s home

David Badash, 

The New Civil Rights Movement
April 7, 2025 


Fired U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer testifies during a hearing organized by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate about President Donald Trump's administration's treatment of the Justice Department and law firms who act in cases disliked by the president, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

A former U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney delivered sworn testimony before Congress on Monday, accusing her former agency—now under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi—of “corruption and abuse of power.” She claimed that armed U.S. Marshals were sent to her home to deliver what she described as a “warning” from the DOJ, cautioning her about the risks of testifying.

Liz Oyer “told U.S. media outlets that her firing came shortly after she declined to recommend restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump,” Reuters reports. She reportedly was fired by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on March 7.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last month reported that “Oyer says she was fired as the pardon attorney at the Justice Department within hours of saying she couldn’t add Mel Gibson to a list of individuals she recommended should have their gun rights restored.”

“Within hours of my decision not to do that,” Oyer said, “I was escorted out of my office by DOJ security officers.”

During her testimony, Oyer described the tense situation.

“The letter was to be served at my home between 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock on Friday night,” she explained (video below). “I was in the car with my husband and my parents, who are sitting behind me today, when I got the news that the officers were on their way to my house, where my teenage child was home alone. Fortunately, due to the grace of a very decent person who understood how upsetting this would be to my family, I was able to confirm receipt of the letter to an email address, and the deputies were called off.”

Oyer blasted the DOJ.

“At no point did Mr. Blanche’s staff pick up the phone and call me before they sent armed deputies to my home,” she said in her testimony. “The letter was a warning to me about the risks of testifying here today. But I am here because I will not be bullied into concealing the ongoing corruption and abuse of power at the Department of Justice.”

“DOJ is entrusted with keeping us safe, upholding the rule of law, and protecting our civil rights. It is not a personal favor bank for the President. Its career employees are not the president’s personal debt collectors.”

“It should alarm all Americans that the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of Justice. It should offend all Americans that our leaders are treating public servants with a lack of basic decency and humanity.”

Attorney Michael Bromwich, who is representing Oyer, in a letter to DOJ called it an “unusual step” to direct “armed law enforcement officers to the home of a former Department of Justice employee who has engaged in no misconduct, let alone criminal conduct, simply to deliver a letter.” He characterized the act as “both unprecedented and completely inappropriate.”

Bromwich also challenged the administration’s apparent claim of executive privilege over Oyer’s testimony, calling it”baseless,” and wrote “that she is entitled to certain legal protections for whistleblowers.”

According to NBC News, Bromwich also accused Blanche of appearing “to be using the Department’s security resources to intimidate a former employee who is engaged in statutorily protected whistleblower conduct, an act that implicates criminal and civil statutes as well as Department policy and your ethical obligations as a member of the bar.”

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and popular MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst, remarked: “Sending two armed marshals to a former DOJ lawyers [sic] home at 9pm to ‘deliver a letter’ when they’re in email contact with her or could have just called smacks of an effort to intimidate.”

CBS News justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane posted a copy of the letter Oyer was sent.

Watch the video below or at this link.

‘Crook & Criminal’: Trump meeting with Israeli president sparks online fury

Erik De La Garza
April 7, 2025 

RAW STORY


U.S President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

While the White House meeting between Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump on Monday touched on tariffs and talks over Iran and Gaza, it was the political optics of the encounter that made the rounds on social media.

And the reactions weren’t too positive for either world leader.

“Trump (again) pulls out a chair for Netanyahu in a show of partnership,” UK activist Howard Beckett posted on X. “Netanyahu is a wanted war criminal with the blood of 60,000 Palestinians stained on his monstrous hands. “Fascism in full view of the world.”

“NETANYAHU IS A CROOK & A CRIMINAL,” University of California, Irvine political science lecturer Larry Tenney wrote on Bluesky. “That is all.”

Political commentator Jackson Hinkle stated bluntly in an X post: “Trump is a terrorist. Netanyahu is a terrorist.”

“God it must be so surreal to be conducting a genocide and have to fly to DC to talk Tariffs with Donald Trump,” economy writer Nathan Tankus wrote Monday on Bluesky. “Netanyahu tells reporters that he told Trump Israel 'will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States.' Netanyahu continued: “'We are going to eliminate the tariffs and rapidly.'”

Tankus added in a follow-up post: “Good luck running balanced trade with the United States. Is this just going to be even more arms sales financed by U.S. government credit?”

While some political observers criticized Trump and Netanyahu’s policies, actor Brian Guest questioned the timing of the meeting: “Obvious that this was the plan from Netanyahu and Trump from the get go on tariffs,” he wrote on Bluesky

The White House meeting prompted Illinois attorney Sheryl Weikal to openly wonder on Bluesky: “Can we have ICE deport Netanyahu and then itself?"

This country won’t survive four more years of this chaos," Democratic activist Craig Schisel concluded of Trump cancelling a planned press conference before reversing course and moving forward with it. "Something needs to be done—and fast."

'Nazis did nice things for their captives?' Trump's flippant remark leaves critics aghast

Matthew Chapman
April 7, 2025 
RAW STORY




President Donald Trump held a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, but an odd Holocaust-related analogy he offered about the hostages captured by Hamas caught the attention of many observers.

"I said to [the former hostages], was there any sign of love?" said Trump. "Did Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany, what happened elsewhere? People would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress. They said no."

Trump's apparent implication that the Nazis "liked" some of their Jewish death camp inmates and "helped" the ones that were "in unbelievable distress" sparked confusion and fury from commenters on social media.


ALSO READ:'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

"Did he just casually imply Jews were treated more humanely in Nazi Germany?" wrote Justin Kanew, a former Democratic congressional candidate who now heads up The Tennessee Holler.

"Equating hostages held by Hamas to victims in Nazi Germany isn’t just offensive, it’s also a grotesque distortion of history," wrote Wall Street investment banker Evaristus Odinikaeze. "He’s always saying the first thing that pops into his head without understanding the weight of those words. And he’s sitting next to Israeli Prime Minister. Crazy stuff!"

"Did this m-----f----- just sit beside the Prime Minister of Israel and say the Nazis showed signs of 'liking' the Jews during the Holocaust?!?" wrote outspoken anti-Trump influencer @JoJoFromJerz.

"Did you get your unlimited breadsticks like in Dachau?" wrote conspiracy theory journalist Mike Rothschild.

"Wait ... like what happened in Germany?" wrote VoteVets podcaster Fred Wellman. "Is he saying the Germans were kind to the Jews? They killed 6 million but ... you know sometimes they gave them a piece of bread."


"For those who might not pay that much attention to the increasing senility of this man, here he is suggesting that Nazis did nice things for their captives like give them extra food," wrote anti-Trump newsletter writer Justin Glawe.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

'Devastating': Sotomayor slams Trump as 'lawless' for using 1798 law to deport immigrants

Image via Creative Commons.

Carl Gibson

April 08, 2025

ALTERNET

President Donald Trump's administration was just given a green light by the 6-3 conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to continue deporting immigrants without due process under a controversial centuries-old law. But justices' views varied widely on the issue.

The decision — which was handed down on party lines (and with Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett partially dissenting) — allows for Trump to continue deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) while litigation plays out in the lower courts. The Supreme Court's ruling overturns rulings handed down by lower court judges that blocked the administration from deporting immigrants without first giving them a hearing in court as the AEA allows. The AEA has only been invoked three times in history, and hadn't been used since World War II.

The administration argued that it had the right under the AEA to deport three planeloads full of detainees to the maximum security CECOT prison in El Salvador, alleging that those being deported were members of violent gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13. But the government's lawyers have already admitted that at least one man was deported as the result of an administrative error, and that seven women and one man eventually had to be sent back to the United States who were originally on the flights to El Salvador. Chief Justice John Roberts recently sided with the administration in halting the deadline to bring back the man who had been wrongfully deported.

Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern observed that two Democratic-appointed justices issued blistering dissents in condemning the ruling. Sonia Sotomayor (an appointee of former President Barack Obama) lamented the new legal precedent the Court created for deportations with its ruling, darkly predicting that administrations now had carte blanche to send deportees to foreign prisons without any due process hearings.

"What if the Government later determines that it sent one of these detainees to CECOT in error? Or a court eventually decides that the President lacked authority under the Alien Enemies Act to declare that Tren de Aragua is perpetrating or attempting an 'invasion' against the territory of the United States?" Sotomayor wrote. "The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise."

Additionally, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (an appointee of former President Joe Biden) alleged in her own separate dissent that the Roberts Court was attempting to pass unpopular decisions under the cover of the Court's "emergency docket," in which it rules on issues being litigated in lower courts without parties first submitting official writ of certiorari petitions asking the Court to intervene. She also notably cited the maligned Korematsu v. United States decision, in which the Supreme Court defended the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration's detainment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Korematsu is widely regarded as one of the Court's worst decisions in U.S. history.

"I lament that the Court appears to have embarked on a new era of procedural variability, and that it has done so in such a casual, inequitable, and, in my view, inappropriate manner," Jackson wrote. "At least when the Court went off base in the past, it left a record so posterity could see how it went wrong ... With more and more of our most significant rulings taking place in the shadows of our emergency docket, today’s Court leaves less and less of a trace. But make no mistake: We are just as wrong now as we have been in the past, with similarly devastating consequences. It just seems we are now less willing to face it."

'Cruelty': WSJ editors rip Trump for fighting to keep 'man falsely expelled in a hellhole'

Daniel Hampton
April 7, 2025 

RAW STORY


Prison guards serarch inmates during a media tour at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board laid into the Trump administration again Monday night as it actively fights against efforts to return a wrongfully deported man from a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison to the United States.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland was mistakenly sent to a mega-prison last month, and the Trump administration acknowledged his deportation was due to an "administrative error."

Garcia was deported on March 15, even though an immigration judge in 2019 barred his removal due to risks of persecution and torture by gangs. But the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to mass deport alleged gang members, including Garcia, even though no evidence has emerged tying him to criminal activities.

The administration has said Garcia is no longer under the United States' jurisdiction since he is detained by Salvadoran authorities.

And the Journal editors weren't having it, writing that the Trump Administration is fighting to "keep a man falsely expelled in a Salvadoran hellhole."

"The Trump Administration’s never-back-down style is becoming a governance problem with overtones of cruelty," the editorial said.

The administration said in its filing that the Constitution "charges the President, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the Nation against foreign terrorists." Solicitor General John Sauer, meanwhile, said the judge's ruling dictated to the U.S. “that it must not only negotiate with a foreign country to return an enemy alien on foreign soil, but also succeed by 11:59 p.m. tonight." That could, said Sauer, set a terrible precedent of “district court diplomacy.”

"Not quite," the Journal retorted, pointing to another judge's rationale for denying the Trump administration's demand for a pause, which noted the facts of the case "present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done.”

That, the judge said, is a path to “perfect lawlessness.”

"The Trump Administration hates to admit an error, but its obstinance here serves no purpose. Mistakes happen. Why not ask the Salvadoran government to send Mr. Abrego Garcia back to unite with his family?" the Journal concluded.

Supreme Court hands Trump win in effort to deport migrants using controversial 1700s law

Daniel Hampton
April 7, 2025 

ALTERNET

The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a win Monday afternoon as it allowed his administration to — for now — use a 1700s-era law to deport migrants it alleges are gang members.

The court said Trump's administration can invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was part of the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by Congress amid heightened tensions with France. The law gives the president wartime powers to detain, relocate, or deport non-citizens from enemy nations.

Trump invoked the act last month to deport migrants that authorities said were members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. This marked the act's first use since World War II.

Critics have said the deportations were illegal because it the act has traditionally been restricted to wartime scenarios or invasions by foreign governments.

But in an unsigned decision in the case, the Supreme Court allowed in a 5-4 ruling that Trump to invoke the law to expedite deportations while litigation over its use proceeds through lower courts. The court said deported migrants now must be notified they are subject to the act and be given a chance to have their deportation reviewed.


“AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act. The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the court wrote, according to NBC News.

The ruling lifted an order last month that gained national headlines handed down by Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., who blocked the administration from carrying out deportations using the law. Boasberg has a hearing planned Tuesday on whether to impose a longer-term preliminary injunction.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke out against the ruling in her dissent.

“I lament that the Court appears to have embarked on a new era of procedural variability, and that it has done so in such a casual, inequitable, and, in my view, inappropriate manner,” Jackson wrote.

Trump Backs 'Blatantly Unconstitutional' Proposal to Send US Citizen Inmates to El Salvador Prisons

"You may not deport a U.S. citizen, period," said one legal expert.



People who were sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration arrive in San Salvador on March 31, 2025.
(Photo: El Salvador Press Presidency Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Apr 07, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

With a deadline looming for the Trump administration to return a Maryland resident to the U.S. after expelling him along with hundreds of other people to an El Salvador detention center under a shadowy deal with the Central American country, U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday stunned observers by expressing a desire to send U.S. citizens into El Salvador's prison system.

In a press briefing aboard Air Force One Sunday evening, Trump was asked by a reporter about an offer made by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to accept prisoners sent by the U.S. from its federal prison population.

"I love that," Trump said. "If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and hit people over the back of the head and purposely run people over in cars, if he would take them, I would be honored to give them."

"I don't know what the law says on that," he added. "I have suggested that, why should we stop at people who cross the border illegally?"

Podcaster and former Obama administration staffer Jon Favreau said Trump's remarks could be summed up as: "He wants to send American citizens to a foreign gulag."



Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which permits the U.S. government to detain and deport noncitizens during wartime, to expel 238 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, where they are being held in the country's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). About two dozen people who were originally from El Salvador were also sent to the prison, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Maryland man who had legal protected status, was not convicted of a crime, and had previously received a court order barring the U.S. from deporting him to his home country for fear of persecution and torture.

Trump said several times in his comments Sunday that he was unsure of the legality of sending U.S. federal prison inmates to a foreign prison system.

In February, after Bukele first offered to imprison U.S. citizens, Lee Gelernt of the ACLU told NPR that the idea was a "non-starter."

"You may not deport a U.S. citizen, period," Gelernt, deputy director of the group's Immigrants' Rights Project, told the outlet. "The courts have not allowed that, and they would not allow it... It would be blatantly unconstitutional to deport a U.S. citizen."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also touted Bukele's offer at the time, calling it "an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country."

Trump's remarks on potentially expanding his deal with the Salvadoran president to include U.S. citizens followed U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis's order mandating the return of Abrego Garcia to the U.S. with a deadline of 11:59 pm Monday.

Xinis on Sunday rejected the administration's request to lift the order, saying Abrego Garcia's expulsion had been "wholly lawless" and that the "risk of harm shocks the conscience."

On Monday, the administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Xinis' order, saying her demand that the White House adhere to the Constitution was "district-court diplomacy" and accusing the judge of trying to "seize control over foreign relations."

The administration has attacked the district court in Washington, D.C. in recent days over the order, with homeland security adviser Stephen Miller calling on Congress last week to "step up" and abolish the panel by refusing to fund it.

The White House has called Abrego Garcia's expulsion and imprisonment in El Salvador an "administrative error" and claimed the Maryland father is no longer under U.S. jurisdiction, so the administration cannot order him to be returned.

"We suggest the judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt last week.

Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins said that under the same logic, "there is also nothing that prevents them from shipping American citizens to a gulag in El Salvador and saying, 'Nothing we can do.'"

As Trump expressed interest in expelling U.S. citizens to a foreign prison system, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council pointed out that the details of the White House's deal with Bukele have not been publicly disclosed.

"We literally know nothing about it, other than we're paying them $6 million," said Reichlin-Melnick. "No law in the United States authorizes us to pay another country to imprison people. And yet! They're doing it."


Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director for Detention Watch Network, toldNewsweek Monday that the deal with Bukele is being used "as a tool of propaganda with the core objective to dehumanize and villainize people while carrying out their cruel mass detention and deportation agenda unchecked."

"Bottom line, Trump and Bukele's partnership deepens collaboration with authoritarian leaders," said Ghandehari, "further jeopardizing democratic values in the U.S. and around the world."

 MAGA Christian nationalist insists people of faith 'want to see mass deportations'

Matthew Chapman
April 8, 2025 

RAW STORY





A far-right Christian nationalist who previously served in the Trump administration says people who follow Christ are all in on Trump's plans for mass deportation.

William Wolfe, who recently met with White House faith adviser Paula White and joined several other Christian nationalists praying over Trump in the Oval Office, made the comments in an interview shared on X by Right Wing Watch.

"I told the White House faith office, I think Christians want to see mass deportations," said Wolfe. "You'll see a lot of, sort of, evangelical organizations attacking Trump's immigration policies and priorities. They're AstroTurf, they're left-leaning, they're using evangelical in a way that is not really historically accurate. But I'm telling you, I think that Southern Baptists and Christians want to see this happen."

Wolfe's statement contradicts centuries of history of Christian churches serving as sanctuaries for persecuted migrants, and recent reports suggest that roughly 10 million Christians are at risk of deportation from the United States under Trump's schemes, to the extent that some churches are taking precautions in how they hold services to protect their congregants.

Wolfe, who previously served in Trump's first administration and is part of a fringe group believing U.S. law is or should be subordinate to far-right interpretations of the Bible, has fought to erode or terminate the rights to same-sex marriage, abortion, contraception, sex education, surrogacy, and no-fault divorce. He also has ties to Russ Vought, the Project 2025 architect currently serving as Trump's head of the Office of Management and Budget.

Trump's aggressive deportation strategy purports to prioritize violent gang members and summarily expel them to an infamous, brutal megaprison in El Salvador; however, on multiple occasions, he has removed people with protected legal status and who had no record of criminal offenses.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

‘Deport them all!’ MAGA world cheers ‘huge’ SCOTUS win and declares 'lawfare is crumbling'

Erik De La Garza
April 7, 2025 

RAW STORY


Supporters of President Donald Trump’s hardline deportation policy took a victory lap on Monday following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants.

The Monday legal win for Trump overturned U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s ruling temporarily blocking administration officials from moving forward with deportations under the wartime act– which an appeals court left untouched last week.

The Supreme Court’s decision was cheered as “a landmark victory for the rule of law” by Attorney General Pam Bondi, a position others in the MAGA world echoed throughout social media.

“An activist judge in Washington, DC does not have the jurisdiction to seize control of President Trump’s authority to conduct foreign policy and keep the American people safe,” Bondi concluded in a post on X. “The Department of Justice will continue fighting in court to make America safe again.”

“Another huge win,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote in his own X post. “Woke activist judges have no business blocking the President from exercising his constitutional authority.”

“MAJOR VICTORY: SCOTUS ruled in favor of President Trump and will allow deportations under the Alien Enemies Act to continue,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) posted on X. “Judge Boasberg ignored precedent and must be held accountable. Now let’s get these criminal illegal aliens out of our country.”

Former Fox News and NBC News host Megyn Kelly told her X followers she was still reading through the ruling but added: “Bye Judge Boasberg!”

“SCOTUS just handed Boasberg his a-- on a platter,” MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman wrote on X. “They ruled against him and granted Trump the power to use The Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Lawfare is crumbling!” He later added in a follow-up post: "This is HUGE! DEPORT THEM ALL! EXPEL THE INVADERS!"

“HOLY S--- The Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a MASSIVE win against Judge Boasberg,” the right-wing X account MAGA Voice wrote. “All Rogue Judges should be disbarred. I LOVE ALL THIS WINNING.”

'Gay beam machine': Right-wing pastor makes startling claim about airport scanners

Travis Gettys
April 8, 2025 

ALTERNHET

Andrew Isker (Phil Williams/News Channel 5/ Screengrab)

A Christian nationalist pastor made a startling claim about scanners used at airports to detect weapons and other potential threats.

Andrew Isker, who co-hosts with C. Jay Engel what he calls "the number one Christian nationalist podcast in the world," shared his unconventional and homophobic views on the Transportation Safety Administration's security scanners in a video flagged by WTVF's Phil Williams, who has reported extensively on his ministry.

"Where was the Constitution when the Patriot Act was passed?" Isker said in a recent broadcast. "Right, give me a break. Like, I had to be molested at the airport to go to Florida, right, just to get on an airplane, just because I'm not going to go through the 'gay beam' machine. I didn't let C. Jay do it, I wouldn't let him do it. I said, 'You're getting patted down, too, buddy. I don't want them turning you gay.'"

"It appears having a guy touch you all over place, on its face, seems worse, but you don't really know what those things are doing to you," Isker added. "They can just take a picture of me naked? Like, no."

Engel, his co-host, interjected to speculate the scanning process might somehow involve "virtual adrenochrome," a reference to the chemical compound produced by the oxidation of adrenaline which plays a role in QAnon lore about wealthy elites and alleged child trafficking rings.

Isker and Engel moved to Tennessee with aims of creating a community so-called "Heritage Americans," who are depicted in their social media posts with images of Norman Rockwell's idyllic depictions of midcentury life, and they have explicitly stated their longing for the American way of life before women joined the workforce and civil rights "ruined everything."

The pair's Jackson County project resembled a similar effort by Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to turn Moscow, Idaho, into a “church town," and that's apparently no accident – Isker graduated from a ministerial training program set up by Wilson’s Christ Church.

The project's real estate component is led by two related companies, New Founding and RidgeRunner, which started with an initial project in nearby Burkesville, Kentucky, before launching the Jackson County phase last year.

BNew Founding CEO Nate Fischer has described Christian nationalism as a "positive Christian vision for government," while his partner Josh Abbotoy has called for the U.S. to be ruled by a "Protestant Franco," referring to Catholic dictator who ruled over Spain from 1939 to 1975.

Abbotoy bought up 500 acres on the Macon-Jackson County line and a related corporation purchased another 100 acres near downtown Gainesboro, including an office building where Isker and Engel record their podcasts beneath portraits of former presidents James K. Polk and Richard Nixon.

'Good ideas at scale!' Dr. Oz wants cheap AI avatars to take roles from pricey doctors

Matthew Chapman
April 8, 2025 

RAW STORY

One of Dr. Mehmet Oz's first orders of business after being appointed President Donald Trump's director of Medicare and Medicaid Services: robot doctors.

According to Wired, Oz made the comments during his first all-hands meeting at CMS since taking over the agency.

"Oz claimed that if a patient went to a doctor for a diabetes diagnosis, it would be '$100' per hour, while an appointment with an AI avatar would cost considerably less, at just '$2' an hour," reported Leah Feiger and Steven Levy. "Oz also claimed that patients have rated the care they’ve received from an AI avatar as equal to or better than a human doctor ... Because of technologies like machine learning and AI, Oz claimed, it is now possible to scale 'good ideas' in an affordable and fast way."

Current research indicates that patients trust medical advice from AI less than from human doctors.

"CMS has explored the use of AI for the last several years, according to archived versions of an agency website dedicated to the topic, and the agency released an updated 'AI Playbook' in 2022," noted the report. However, "those efforts appear to have focused on finding ways to leverage vast CMS data sets, rather than involving AI directly in patient care."

Oz, a former thoracic surgeon, was best known before his confirmation to the Trump administration for running a controversial daytime talk show in which he promoted unproven supplements as miracle weight loss solutions.

While he has promised lawmakers to stop his side hustles of promoting supplements while serving in government, Oz's appointment has caused a separate concern among observers that he might undo recently-proposed safeguards on preventing waste and fraud in Medicare Advantage plans, privatized insurance paid for by taxpayers as an alternative to traditional Medicare, as Oz has been an outspoken promoter of the program. With Oz at the Helm, CMS is currently announcing a significantly higher reimbursement hike to Medicare Advantage insurers than was previously proposed.