Tag Archives: Canada

Associated Press: Federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers law

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A federal court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law, swiftly throwing into doubt Trump’s signature set of economic policies that have rattled global financial markets, frustrated trade partners and raised broader fears about inflation intensifying and the economy slumping.

The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade came after several lawsuits arguing Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs exceeded his authority and left the country’s trade policy dependent on his whims.

Federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers law
A federal court is blocking President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-trade-court-0392dbd59f548e49ad4f64254ae3f94a

The Daily Yonder: ICE Returns to Intimidation Tactics from the First Trump Term

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Immigration agents target community organizers involved in protecting the rights of farm workers. Activists say the tactics are meant to undermine the trust of migrants in organizations trying to help them.

Early one late March morning, Farmworker activist and union leader Alfredo Juarez Zeferino was taking his partner to her job on a tulip farm in the picturesque Skagit Valley, Washington, when the couple was stopped by immigration enforcement.

According to reporting in The Stranger, Zeferino called Rosalinda Guillen, a long-time organizer and founder of Community to Community (C2C), at 7:23 am on March 25, 2025. In the background, she could hear Zeferino’s partner crying as Zeferino told ICE officers to leave her alone, before the chaotic phone call abruptly ended. 

Zeferino was arrested that day and has remained in a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, despite the efforts of activists and legal aid.

At 25, Zeferino is already an accomplished organizer; he was a founding member of local farmworker union Familias Unidas por la Justicia, won a Peacemaker Award from the Whatcom Peace & Justice Commission, and sat on the now-defunct Bellingham Immigration Advisory Board. 

Zeferino’s detention seems to be a part of a pattern of targeted immigration enforcement against immigration labor movement leaders. Fabiola Ortiz Valdez, the director of organizing for the Food Chain Workers Alliance, an organization that connects immigrant labor organizers across the US and Canada, has seen an increase in immigration and labor activist detentions by immigration officials.

“We have seen ICE and immigration enforcement targeting workers; we also see harsher targeting for organizers as well,” Ortiz Valdez said, adding “I think that our members and organizations understand that the immigration laws in this country have always meant to do what they’re doing right now, which is create a more exploitable workforce within the United States. So it’s not surprising, but it’s definitely very alarming.”

…

Migrant Justice filed a lawsuit in 2018 to stop the targeting. In 2020, they settled successfully with ICE, which dropped their deportation cases against the plaintiffs, paid restitution, and committed to not targeting Migrant Justice and its membership in the future.

But apparently they are still doing exactly that!

ICE Returns to Intimidation Tactics from the First Trump Term | The Daily Yonder
Early one late March morning, Farmworker activist and union leader Alfredo Juarez Zeferino was taking his partner to her job on a tulip farm in the
ICE Returns to Intimidation Tactics from the First Trump Term

Politico: Larry Summers Says Trump’s Latest Attack on Harvard Is a ‘Prescription for Failure’

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The former Harvard president says Trump’s effort to ban international students would damage not just Harvard but America.

In just the last 24 hours, the Trump administration announced it would effectively ban international students from attending Harvard University, Harvard sued, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s ban.

The whirlwind of attacks and counterattacks surrounding one of America’s preeminent educational institutions represented a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s war on Harvard. As the institution wrote in its lawsuit, “with the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body.”

Harvard has been on the leading edge of the fight between the Trump administration and elite universities, and unlike some peer institutions, it has not backed down.

Former Harvard President Larry Summers has been a frequent critic of his old university, but he’s been an enthusiastic defender amid Trump’s latest attacks.

“Courage and capitulation are both contagious,” he said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine. “I am glad Harvard chose courage, because if Harvard, with all its good fortune, can’t resist authoritarian steps, who can?”

Summers argued the Trump administration’s legal case would find little merit in the courts, adding that the effort to rid Harvard of international students would only damage the United States in the long run.

“It’s hard to imagine a greater strategic gift to China than for the United States to sacrifice its role as a beacon to the world,” Summers said.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.…

Larry Summers Says Trump’s Latest Attack on Harvard Is a ‘Prescription for Failure’
The former Harvard president says Trump’s effort to ban international students would damage not just Harvard but America.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/23/trump-harvard-international-students-larry-summers-00367667

New Republic: Transcript: Trump’s Threats to Defy Courts Suddenly Get More Dangerous

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As Trump’s intent to override the courts gets more obvious, a legal commentator who closely observes MAGA lawlessness explains why the Trump-MAGA strategy here is darker than you thought.

This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

President Donald Trump is very unhappy with how things went at the Supreme Court when it comes to his effort to end birthright citizenship. He uncorked two angry epic tirades about the High Court, essentially putting it on notice that it had better rule his way on this and other matters coming before it or else. This may look like typical Trumpian bullying and threats, but we think there’s a game going on here that people are missing. It’s that Trump is, in a very real sense, playing chicken with the Supreme Court. He’s trying to bluff the justices into constraining themselves from putting limits on Trump’s power. We’re going to explore how this really works today with one of our favorite legal commentators, Matthew Seligman, a fellow at Stanford Law School.

Best to click on the link and read the dialogue:

Transcript: Trump’s Threats to Defy Courts Suddenly Get More Dangerous
As Trump’s intent to override the courts gets more obvious, a legal commentator who closely observes MAGA lawlessness explains why the Trump-MAGA strategy here is darker than you thought.

https://newrepublic.com/article/195392/transcript-trump-threats-defy-courts-suddenly-get-dangerous

Raw Story: Trump’s henchmen are driving him to Supreme Court clash that he doesn’t care about: expert

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President Donald Trump seems likely to stage a major showdown with the U.S. Supreme Court that a legal expert believes is an intentional effort to gather up authoritarian powers.

The president has been attacking judges who rule against him in legal challenges to his executive orders, and Stanford Law School’s Matthew Seligman told The New Republic’s Greg Sargent that Vice President JD [“Dunce”] Vance and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller were even more eager than Trump to break the courts.

“This implicates an important distinction between Trump as an optical authoritarian versus [“Dunce”] Vance and [“Goebbels”] Miller as substantive authoritarians,” Seligman said. “Trump wants the trappings of authoritarianism. He wants everybody to talk about how he’s the most powerful person, and he wants it to look like he’s in charge.”

“He wants the big parade,” …

But:

The vice president and Trump’s deputy chief of staff want to break the court’s opposition to Trump so the president carry out the “pure will of the people,” meaning the MAGA base, without bureaucratic obstacles, as Sargent put it.

“[“Goebbels”] Miller and [“Dunce”] Vance, I think, are much more committed to substantive authoritarianism,” Seligman agreed. “They actually want to exercise the power. They actually want to degrade the rule of law because they actually want to impose this particular vision — very dark vision — of America’s future on the country. 

Trump’s henchmen are driving him to Supreme Court clash that he doesn’t care about: expert

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-supreme-court-2672130148

Daily Beast: Pope Leo Snubs JD Vance After Inaugural Mass

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The pope gave the vice president short shrift after the ceremony.

Pope Leo XIV spurned JD Vance on Sunday, offering him a quick greeting after his inaugural mass while holding extensive private meetings with other world leaders.

The first American pope shook Vance’s hand during a brief, 17-second exchange during the procession line after the mass.

Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra on Sunday after celebrating his inaugural Mass, which included world leaders from Canada, Italy, Germany, and other European Union officials in the audience.

Pope Leo Snubs JD Vance After Inaugural Mass
The pope gave the vice president short shrift after the ceremony.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-leo-xiv-snubs-jd-vance-as-he-meets-with-world-leaders

Salon: “I feel like I’ve lost my country”: Americans who oppose Trump are now looking for the exits

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As President Donald Trump ushers in his so-called “Golden Age” for the nation, some Americans are jumping ship. Yale University history professor Marci Shore is relieved to be one of them. 

She and her husband, historian Timothy Snyder, had long been on the fence about leaving the United States, Shore told Salon, with professorships at the University of Toronto available to them for at least two years should they have wished to take them. Trump’s reelection in November and the proverbial smoke before the fire in the immediate aftermath made it clear to her that now was the time to pull the trigger. 

“I felt like this country had everything right in front of them, and people chose this — a lot of people chose this, and that was heartbreaking,” she said. “And I also felt like, ‘I don’t want to come back to this.’ I don’t want to, and maybe I’m not devoted enough. Maybe I’m not enough of a patriot. But I felt like, ‘I don’t want this. I don’t want this for my kids. I don’t want this environment.'”

Shore is a part of a small but burgeoning group of Americans who have lost faith in their country since Trump’s reclaimed the presidency — who have lost hope that a good future is still possible there …

?url=httpswww.salon.com20250518i-feel-like-ive-lost-my-country-americans-oppose-are-now-looking-for-the-exits

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/18/i-feel-like-ive-lost-my-country-americans-oppose-are-now-looking-for-the-exits

Also here:

“I feel like I’ve lost my country”: Americans who oppose Trump are now looking for the exits
Professional relocation consultants say they’re fielding more calls from Americans trying to leave the country

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i-feel-like-i-ve-lost-my-country-americans-who-oppose-trump-are-now-looking-for-the-exits/ar-AA1EZvhK

MSNBC: Trump took Bruce Springsteen’s bait [Opinion]

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This week’s mini-feud pits two predictable septuagenarians against each other. And the result is a personal gift to the Boss.

“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times,” he said in the minute-long speech, to raucous cheers.

“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” he continued before asking fans to “raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”

Later in the evening, Springsteen offered a withering takedown of what he’s seen happening in the U.S. under Trump.

“They are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent,” Springsteen began, in remarks that were later posted on his website and YouTube channel. He continued:

They’re rolling back historic Civil Rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons.

He also took aim at Trump’s fellow Republicans, as well as the Democratic Party, arguing that they had all failed to protect Americans “from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”

Still, he said, “The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its faults is a great country with a great people. So, we’ll survive this moment.”

And of course the vile King Donald just can’t resist the temptation to badmouth the Boss, and Biden, too. The final score:

Boss 1

Trump 0

Opinion | Trump took Bruce Springsteen’s bait
This week’s mini-feud pits two predictable septuagenarians against each other. And the result is a personal gift to the Boss.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-post-bruce-springsteen-taylor-swift-gift-rcna207397

Independent: White House backed down on China’s tariff after president was told they would hurt ‘Trump’s people’ the most

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Several White House staffers had to warn the president that his tariffs would impact ‘Trump’s people.’

The White House eased tariffs imposed on China after several staffers were forced to warn President Donald Trump that his penalties would cause his supporters – or “Trump’s people,” – to suffer economically, according to a report.

While Trump was reluctant to lower tariffs against Beijing too quickly, several White House staffers – including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other aides – warned him the penalties were placing his own supporters in danger, sources told the Washington Post.

…

“The key argument was that this was beginning to hurt Trump’s supporters – Trump’s people,” one person briefed on the talks said. “It gave Susie a key window.”

White House eases China’s tariff after learning it would hurt ‘Trump’s people’ most
Several White House staffers had to warn the president that his tariffs would impact ‘Trump’s people.’

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/china-tariffs-trade-trump-friends-b2751003.html

National Security Journal: NATO Is Now Dead

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NATO, in its current form, is depicted as a “corpse,” its strategic effectiveness undermined by decades of European defense underfunding (“free-riding”) and US strategic overstretch.

-Most member states fail to meet spending commitments, rendering the alliance a hollow shell, a reality starkly exposed by the war in Ukraine where the US carries the primary burden.

-President Trump’s approach is seen not as the cause of NATO’s decline but as a catalyst for a necessary reckoning, forcing Europe to confront its defense responsibilities.

-A fundamental reset towards a European-led security framework, with US support rather than dominance, is essential for future relevance.

NATO Is Now Dead
President Trump’s approach is seen not as the cause of NATO’s decline but as a catalyst for a necessary reckoning, forcing Europe to confront its defense responsibilities.
NATO Is Now Dead