Monthly Archives: April 2025

CNBC: CBP says latest tariffs have generated $500 million, well below Trump’s estimate

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  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection told CNBC the department has collected more than $500 million under Trump’s latest tariffs.
  • Trump has repeatedly said the United States is taking in $2 billion per day from tariffs.
  • CBP says the average $250 million a day was collected even during the glitch that impacted freight already on the water.

“Even during the brief glitch, CBP’s average $250 million/day revenue stream remained uninterrupted,” CBP said in its statement.

Trump has repeatedly said the United States is taking in $2 billion per day from tariffs, including revenues directly resulting from his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.

$250 million/day vs. $2 billion/day: King Donald has been lying by a factor of eight!

We also need to remember that tariffs are paid by the BUYERS, so any income comes out of OUR OWN pockets.

CBP says latest tariffs have generated $500 million, well below Trump’s estimate
Trump has repeatedly said the United States is taking in $2 billion per day from tariffs.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/16/us-customs-tariffs-revenue-generated-since-april-5.html

LA Times: California is first state to sue Trump on tariffs

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It’s Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most direct move against Trump since the president retook office.

Newsom’s lawsuit, announced Wednesday morning with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, is the first challenge from a U.S. state against Trump’s signature foreign policy cudgel.

California, the world’s fifth largest economy, stands to lose billions to tariffs with major state industries from Silicon Valley to agriculture heavily dependent on global trade.

“President Trump’s unlawful tariffs are wreaking chaos on California families, businesses, and our economy — driving up prices and threatening jobs,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re standing up for American families who can’t afford to let the chaos continue.”

The lawsuit is Newsom’s most direct legal challenge to Trump’s agenda since the president retook office in January. The move instantly reignites California’s war with Trump and cements its place atop the resistance, after Newsom spent months appealing to the president for federal disaster relief.

It’s also notable as a unilateral challenge, underscoring the singular importance of the issue in California. Bonta has worked closely with other blue states on previous lawsuits challenging Trump’s immigration policies and federal funding cuts.

Meanwhile from Trump’s mindless sycophants:

“Instead of focusing on California’s rampant crime, homelessness, and unaffordability, Gavin Newsom is spending his time trying to block President Trump’s historic efforts to finally address the national emergency of our country’s persistent goods trade deficits,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told POLITICO in a statement Wednesday.

California is first state to sue Trump on tariffs
It’s Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most direct move against Trump since the president retook office.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/16/california-is-first-state-to-sue-trump-on-tariffs-00292637

Raw Story: ‘Uppity’ J.D. Vance flattened for new screed defying the Supreme Court

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In a long post on X, Vance argued, “To say the administration must observe ‘due process’ is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors. To put it in concrete terms, imposing the death penalty on an American citizen requires more legal process than deporting an illegal alien to their country of origin.”

Did this blithering idiot actually graduate from Yale Law School?

‘Uppity’ J.D. Vance flattened for new screed defying the Supreme Court
Vice President J.D. Vance was raked over the coals on Wednesday morning for a series of social media posts on X on Tuesday where he continued to defend the Donald Trump administration for wrongfully shipping a Maryland man to El Salvador despite an admonition from the Supreme Court. With the battle over the deportation and imprisonment of Kilmar Ab…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/uppity-j-d-vance-flattened-for-new-screed-defying-the-supreme-court/ar-AA1D1P6V

Politico: Military contractors pitch unprecedented prison plan for detained immigrants

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Erik Prince wants to cut a deal to transport detainees from the US to El Salvador.

If you think things can’t get much worse, think again!

Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America.

The proposal, exclusively obtained by POLITICO, says it would target “criminal illegal aliens” and would attempt to avoid legal challenges by designating part of the prison — which has drawn accusations of violence and overcrowding from human rights groups — as American territory.

…

The proposal would ultimately put Prince in charge of an extraordinary privatization effort that would use his company to handle logistics, including ferrying tens of thousands of detainees from American holding cells to El Salvador’s prison.

Military contractors pitch unprecedented prison plan for detained immigrants
Erik Prince wants to cut a deal to transport detainees from the US to El Salvador.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/military-contractors-prison-plan-detained-immigrants-erik-prince-00287208

LA Times: ‘I don’t trust America.’ Trump’s tariffs, detentions take a toll on local tourism

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On Tuesday, a trickle of visitors traversed the sidewalks of star-studded Hollywood Boulevard, which is usually bustling this time of year with families and students on spring break trips. Parked open-air tour buses and vans were largely empty.

But Jose Ayon, manager at La La Land, a souvenir and gift shop, was not surprised. Foot traffic has struggled to rebound after the pandemic shutdowns and now global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration could make matters worse.

…

Among the casualties in the ongoing trade hostilities is tourism. Amid news of visa cancellations and deportations, state and local tourism officials are increasingly worried about the potential adverse effects on travel to Los Angeles and California.

…

“The way we are perceived globally, is we are blowing up not just our economy but everyone else’s economy,” Filla said. “People don’t think it’s good, they don’t think it’s fair, so why would they go to America?”

‘I don’t trust America.’ Trump’s tariffs, detentions take a toll on local tourism
Amid news of visa cancellations and deportations, state and local tourism officials are increasingly worried about the potential adverse effects on travel to Los Angeles and California.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/i-don-t-trust-america-trump-s-tariffs-detentions-take-a-toll-on-local-tourism/ar-AA1CN7Fm

USA Today: Tourists detained by ICE say they were treated like ‘the worst criminal’

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Uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the U.S. immigration detention system

A British backpacker. A Harvard researcher. A Canadian actress. An Australian mixed martial arts coach. Dozens of international college students.

The Trump administration’s sweeping immigration-and-visa crackdown has begun ensnaring a class of people long-accustomed to being welcomed with open arms into the United States.

And those uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the often-harsh U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention system, where people can be held without charge indefinitely, sometimes in shocking conditions, or abruptly removed from the country.

This type of treatment has long been the case in ICE detention, but the people held by the government often didn’t have the resources ‒ the access, language or middle-class expectations ‒ to denounce the conditions.

Now, with President Donald Trump’s crackdown, native English speakers, people with PhDs, and others are getting the word out to a broader public about a system they describe as arbitrary and punishing ‒ although ICE detention is not supposed to resemble prison.

“It’s insane how easily someone can take away your freedom, lock you in a federal prison, without a clear reason. No explanation. No warning,” ….

Tourists detained by ICE say they were treated like ‘the worst criminal’
Uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the U.S. immigration detention system

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/12/ice-tourist-detention-border-trump-immigration/82740260007

CNN: It’ll be tough for Trump to dig his way out of this one

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With his chaotic trade policy, President Donald Trump is digging himself into an economic and political hole so deep, it may prove impossible to climb out.

On Wednesday morning, just after markets spent a day reeling from Trump’s on-again-off-again threat to levy extraordinary energy, steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and to destroy the country’s auto industry, Trump placed tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported from every country around the world, a policy that could drive up prices on a broad range of consumer and industrial goods for Americans. Europe immediately retaliated, adding pressure on a variety of American industries.

Wall Street has grown nervous about the damage Trump’s policies could inflict on America’s still-strong but increasingly wobbly economy. Stocks have plunged, with the Nasdaq falling into correction (a decline of 10% from its recent high) and the S&P 500 flirting with that inauspicious territory.

It’ll be tough for Trump to dig his way out of this one | CNN Business
With his chaotic trade policy, President Donald Trump is digging himself into an economic and political hole so deep, it may prove impossible to climb out.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/12/economy/recession-tariff-trump/index.html

CNN: A Maryland mother was detained by ICE nearly two weeks ago. So far, no evidence has been provided

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To Karen Cruz Berrios, her mother is a hard-working, devoted single parent. To the Department of Homeland Security, she is “ … an associate of the vicious MS-13 gang.”

However, nearly two weeks after Elsy Noemi Berrios, 52, was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, DHS has yet to disclose any evidence to substantiate its claim against the Salvadoran woman to the public or, her attorneys say, to them.

Noemi Berrios was arrested by federal agents in Westminster, Maryland, on the morning of March 31 as she drove to work with her daughter, according to her family.

Cell phone video, shot and shared by Cruz Berrios, shows authorities demanded her mother step out of the vehicle. She’s heard refusing and asking the officers to show her a detention order.

“I do not need to show you the warrant,” responded one of the officers wearing a tactical vest marked “Federal Agent.”

Seconds later, officers shattered her driver’s side window to unlock the door and removed Noemi Berrios from the car before handcuffing her hands behind her back.

A Maryland mother was detained by ICE nearly two weeks ago. So far, no evidence has been provided. | CNN
To Karen Cruz Berrios, her mother is a hard-working, devoted single parent. To the Department of Homeland Security, she is “ … an associate of the vicious MS-13 gang.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/12/us/maryland-mother-ice-trump-gang/index.html

CNN: Trump targets two first-term critics, a law firm and the American Bar Association

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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would use the power of the Justice Department to go after two officials who were highly critical of him during his first term in office, including one whose anonymously written New York Times op-ed claiming he was part of the “resistance” to Trump’s presidency captivated the nation for years.

The announcement by Trump that he was targeting former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, who penned the op-ed, and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs, whose rejection of Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election led to his ousting, comes as the president continues to seek retribution on his perceived enemies in ways big and small.

Executive orders signed by Trump on Wednesday strip Taylor and Krebs of any existing security clearance they may still hold since leaving office and orders the Justice Department to probe both former officials.

The president did not specify any alleged wrongdoing by the men that necessitated investigations by the department. But, speaking in the White House, Trump made clear he thinks he knows what the results should be.

“I think what he did, and he wrote a book, ‘Anonymous,’ said all sorts of lies, bad things– and I think it’s, I think it’s like a traitor, like, it’s like spying,” Trump said of Taylor. “I think it’s a very important case, and I think he’s guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth, but we’ll find out.”

King Donald is an illiterate bumpkin who apparently doesn’t even understand how treason is defined in the U.S. Constitution.

Trump targets two first term critics, a law firm and the American Bar Association | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would use the power of the Justice Department to go after two officials who were highly critical of him during his first term in office, including one whose anonymously written New York Times op-ed claiming he was part of the “resistance” to Trump’s presidency captivated the nation for years.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/politics/trump-critics-executive-orders-taylor-krebs/index.html

CNN: Trump’s retribution sends a chilling message to dissenters

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Donald Trump’s White House has a threatening message for anyone who might even be perceived to disagree with the president: Don’t. Or else.

Even though he has promised to end what he viewed as “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, Trump is treating people who disagree with him more like the “enemy from within” he talked about during the presidential campaign.

The president took the unusual step this week of issuing official proclamations ordering the federal investigations of people who worked in his first administration.

He’s demanding free work from law firms who represented his perceived enemies, threatening to impeach judges, deporting campus protesters and so much more.

The underlying message, for anyone who hasn’t put all these things together, is that dissent will not be tolerated under Trump 2.0.

Analysis: Trump’s retribution sends a chilling message to dissenters | CNN Politics
Donald Trump’s White House has a threatening message for anyone who might even be perceived to disagree with the president: Don’t. Or else.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/12/politics/trump-krebs-khalil-taylor-crackdown-dissent-what-matters/index.html