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

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.”

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

Alternet: Trump admin resurrects a dissenting argument that already went before the Supreme Court — in 1898

For more than 150 years, people who were born within U.S. territory automatically received citizenship – regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order on birthright citizenship – stating that children born in the U.S. to parents who are not in the country legally, or who are not permanent residents, cannot receive citizenship – threatens to upend this precedent.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the case on May 14, 2025.

This comes after federal judges in three cases that took place in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington banned Trump’s order from going into effect, determining that the president cannot change or limit the Constitution by executive order.

Birthright citizenship been obvious to anyone with half a brain for a century and a half. King Donald just isn’t that bright.

https://www.alternet.org/birthright-citizen

Boing Boing: Trump walks back problem he created; declares victory

As US ports sit empty, convicted felon #47 Donald “Two Dolls, Five Pencils” Trump announced he has victoriously dropped his disruptive tariffs on China.

“Winning!” ala Charlie Sheen, Donald Trump’s big success with China seems to have massively disrupted the economy for very little change. These stops and starts to the economy are supremely damaging, have already cost jobs and serve a purpose no one beyond Trump and his inner circle of dimbulbs seems to understand.

I suspect that Trump ran out of ass-kissing, glorious leader lapel pins and didn’t want to pay his own 145% tariff to take delivery of more.

National Security Journal: ‘Walls Closing in on Trump’: Trying to ‘Avoid Suffering Through Dozens of New Investigations’

Politico reported over the weekend that the president is “already obsessed” about the midterm elections.

While he was less concerned about the midterms in the first half of his first term, Trump is now “already hyper-engaged in the fight to keep the GOP’s majorities in Congress.”

The story, citing “five Republicans… including several close Trump confidants,” said that Trump has hopes of hanging onto his majorities, especially to keep committee gavels and the attached subpoena power out of the hands of Democrats starting in 2027.

Raw Story: ‘Deal is a whiff’: Onlookers blast Trump for ‘wild lies’ about his major announcement

Donald Trump on Sunday made an announcement on prescription drug price controls, resulting in mockery and backlash online.

Trump on Sunday took to his own social media site, Truth Social, and announced what he called “one of the most consequential orders in our country’s history.” It was a price control plan for prescriptions.

Problem is, King Donald has absolutely no authority to tell pharmaceutical firms how much to charge for their products.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-deal-wild-lies-drugs

Washington Post: This Los Angeles port is among the first casualties of Trump’s trade war

Empty berths and idle cranes show the effects of sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods.

The number of shipping containers that arrived at the nation’s top container port last week was roughly one-third lower than during the same period last year — a sharper decline than during the depths of the Great Recession. More than one-fifth of the giant ships that were scheduled to call in Los Angeles this month have already canceled, and that number is expected to rise.

Trump’s 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods — and Beijing’s triple-digit retaliation — are bringing a swift halt to the trans-Pacific flow of electronics, clothing, furniture, industrial parts and everything else that the world’s two largest economies exchange.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/11/los-angeles-port-tariffs-trade-tensions

CNBC: Trump administration ‘looking at’ suspending habeas corpus for migrants, Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller says

  • Senior White House advisor Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller said that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus, the right to challenge a person’s detention by the government, for migrants.
  • [“Goebbels”] Miller was answering a reporter who asked about President Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ to deal with illegal immigration into the United States.
  • The writ has only been suspended four times since the U.S. Constitution was adopted, and in all but one case, Congress first authorized that action.
  • [“Goebbels”] Miller spoke hours after a federal judge in Vermont ordered the release of Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk from the custody of U.S. immigration authorities. She had challenged her detention with a habeas writ.

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller said Friday that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus — the constitutional right to challenge in court the legality of a person’s detention by the government — for migrants.

[“Goebbels”] Miller’s comment came in response to a White House reporter who asked about President Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ to deal with the problem of illegal immigration into the United States.

Asked when that might happen, [“Goebbels”] Miller responded: “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion.”

“So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” he said.

This comes a day or two after the release of Rumeysa Öztürk, who was detained for 45 days by ICE for writing an op-ed column in a newspaper, never charged with nor convicted of any crime:

[“Goebbels”] Miller spoke hours after a federal judge in Vermont ordered the release of Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk from the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.

Öztürk, who had been imprisoned for 45 days after the Trump administration revoked the Turkish citizen’s student visa based on an assessment that she “may undermine U.S. foreign policy by crearting a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.”

Öztürk challenged her detention with a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which noted that she “has not been charged with any crime,” and which argued that her “arrest and detention are designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/09/trump-deportation-habeas-corpus-miller.html

USA Today: Electronics company posts bill with over $36K tariff charge, announces price increases

An electronic hardware company explained to customers why its prices will increase soon after sharing its latest bill, which included a $36,126.46 tariff charge.

Adafruit Industries said its import bill has grown over the past two months, but it just got hit with its first “big bill.” Products were booked and manufactured through a vendor many months ago, ahead of the tariffs President Donald Trump imposed on various countries, including a 145% one on China.

Unexpected bills like this will put a lot of small companies out of business.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/05/09/electronics-company-import-tariff-charge/83535500007

People: J.D. Vance Justifies Tariffs by Promising Parents Their Kids Will Have American-Made Weapons if ‘God Forbid’ They Go to War

Vice President J.D. Vance is speaking out in defense of President Donald Trump‘s tariffs — including his statements about children needing fewer toys — by arguing that Americans could benefit from using American-made weapons if “God forbid … your country goes to a war.”

During an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Thursday, May 8, Vance, 40, spoke out about Trump’s comments about his tariffs on goods from China, and said that Americans “need to become more self-reliant.”

“That’s not going to happen overnight, and it’s not always going to be easy,” Vance told MacCallum. “What I’d ask people is not whether they want two dolls or five dolls or 20 dolls for their kids. I’d ask American moms and dads, would you like to be able to go into a pharmacy and know that the drugs your kids need are actually available to you?”

“As an American parent, would you like to — God forbid, if your country goes to a war and your son or daughter is sent off to fight—would you like to know that the weapons that they have are good, American-made stuff, not made by a foreign adversary?” Vance continued.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/j-d-vance-justifies-tariffs-by-promising-parents-their-kids-will-have-american-made-weapons-if-god-forbid-they-go-to-war/ar-AA1EuUmI

Fortune: Trump calls emptying U.S. ports a ‘good thing’ despite supply-chain panic because ‘that means we lose less money’

As logistics professionals sound the alarms on emptying U.S. ports as a result of steep tariffs, President Donald Trump said those major import slowdowns are actually a boon.

Trump not only acknowledged the shipping slowdown in a Thursday press briefing announcing a trade deal with the UK; he seemed heartened by it.

“We’re seeing as a result that ports here in the U.S., the traffic has really slowed and now thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs,” a reporter said in the press briefing.

“That means we lose less money,” Trump said. “When you say it slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Trump is deranged!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-calls-emptying-u-ports-180609056.html