A new AP-NORC poll finds that the majority of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s stance on colleges and universities as he intensifies threats to cut federal funding unless schools comply with his political agenda.
More than half of Americans, 56 percent, disapprove of the Trump administration’s approach to higher education, while about four in 10 approve, reflecting his overall job approval ratings.
…
This targeting of universities appears out of step with the wider American public, which sees such institutions as key to scientific research, new ideas, and innovation.
More than half of Americans tell Trump to back off colleges and their funding
Targeting of universities is out of step with the wider American public, which sees such institutions as key to scientific research, new ideas, and innovation, according to new research
A West Point professor’s resignation over education shifts brought, in part, by the Trump administration, drew a scathing comment from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
West Point philosophy professor Graham Parsons announced his resignation Thursday, following a 13-year tenure with the academy. Hegseth quickly took to social media, voicing his opinion after the departure.
“You will not be missed Professor Parsons,” Hegseth wrote in response to Parsons’ resignation.
This is quintessential Hegseth — no class, no tact, no sense of decency. Four more years of Hegseth will leave our military in shambles.
Pete Hegseth says West Point professor who resigned over Trump admin education overhaul ‘will not be missed’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a scathing X post Thursday, said a West Point professor who resigned from the academy will not be missed.
FBI Director Kash Patel has alarmed some members of the bureau by taking what they say is an overly casual approach to the role.
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s domestic intelligence and security service is a former prosecutor and political adviser who had little if any law enforcement experience when the president nominated him to head the bureau.
But instead of throwing himself into the job and trying to gain credibility with the officials he’s been tasked with leading, a dozen current and former officials at the FBI and Department of Justice said they worried he wasn’t taking the position seriously enough, NBC News reported.
For decades, the FBI chief has received an 8:30 a.m. daily “director’s brief” with the most important information gathered from thousands of agents and analysts. Patel reportedly had trouble making the morning briefing, so it was dropped from five days a week to two.
“Even that has been a struggle,” an unnamed official told NBC.
Two current FBI officials said Patel sometimes seems uninterested in the materials, forcing them to try to create briefs that will hold his attention.
Patel also ended a long-standing practice of holding secure weekly video conferences with field office leaders across the country, according to NBC. The meetings were considered a crucial way to share information and priorities across the bureau.
Kash Patel Is Seriously Infuriating FBI Officials
The FBI director has canceled key intelligence briefings and upset rank-and-file by carrying a field agent badge he never earned.
At least half a dozen USAID employees who spoke to reporters after they thought they had been fired by the Trump administration have now received notices from the foreign aid agency’s internal human resources office that they are facing investigation for participating in interviews.
The workers, whose formal dismissal date was delayed after leaders encountered bureaucratic snags, received an email in recent days carrying the subject line, “Administrative inquiry.” The email accused them of having “engaged with the press/media without authorization” and threatened “disciplinary action” including “removal from the U.S. Agency for International Development.”
…
“It’s total intimidation,” said Randy Chester, the vice president of the American Foreign Service Association, which is the union that represents USAID employees. He said employees started receiving notices on Monday. The union shared the email exclusively with CBS.
How can they be disciplined after they’ve been fired?
Federal workers spoke to reporters after DOGE fired them. Now they face investigation.
At least half a dozen USAID employees are facing threats of “disciplinary action” for speaking to reporters after they thought they had been fired.
“Trump is cashing in on his presidency and making millions from his own crypto coins. It’s corruption in broad daylight,” Kelly wrote on X Wednesday, promoting the “End Crypto Corruption Act,” which he said would make it illegal for “the President, the Vice President, administration officials, and members of Congress to issue, sponsor, or endorse crypto assets for profit.”
Howsabout execution for corrupt politicians? Yeah!
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.
Electronics company posts bill with over $36K tariff charge, announces price increases
Adafruit Industries, an electronic hardware company, posted its over $36,000 tariff charge and explained to customers why its prices will soon rise.
A federal judge in Baltimore pointedly rejected joint efforts by the government and a Jan. 6 defendant to apply President Donald Trump’s mass pardon to a related but discrete gun crime case.
In a 19-page memorandum and order, U.S. District Judge James Kelleher Bredar, a Barack Obama appointee, found several basic arguments wholly unconvincing. The judge also found one of the more complex arguments a bit underdeveloped and directed the parties to file additional motions, offering one last chance.
The court was, however, withering in its estimation of the government’s efforts to have the case dismissed so far.
“[A]s the record currently stands, the Court is unable to conclude that the Government is not acting in bad faith, and the parties will be directed to provide additional briefing,” Bredar intoned.
‘Not just incorrect’: Judge decimates DOJ’s ‘bad faith’ and ‘unreasonable’ effort to toss Jan. 6 defendant’s gun case over Trump pardon
“As the record currently stands, the Court is unable to conclude that the Government is not acting in bad faith,” the judge said — in one of many rhetorical jabs. The post ‘Not just incorrect’: Judge decimates DOJ’s ‘bad faith’ and ‘unreasonable’ effort to toss Jan. 6 defendant’s gun case over Trump pardon first appeared on Law & Crime.
“Donald Trump announced the External Revenue Service, and his goal is very simple: to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News on Feb. 19. The idea is that once the budget is balanced, taxes will be waived for Americans earning less than $150,000 a year.
However, the flaw in this plan is that tariffs are not paid by “outsiders.” Rather, tariffs are a tax placed on imported goods and services.
“When the U.S. imposes tariffs on imports, businesses in the United States directly pay import taxes to the U.S. government on their purchases from abroad,” according to the Tax Foundation. During Trump’s first term, “the economic evidence shows American firms and consumers were hardest hit by the Trump tariffs.”
At the same time, it would be hard to replace the revenue collected from income taxes with revenue from the planned tariffs. According to a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), a non-partisan research group, the U.S. imported $3.1 trillion in goods in 2023 while raising about $2 trillion through individual and corporate income taxes.
This means it would be nearly impossible to replace income taxes with tariffs, since the tariff rate would have to be “implausibly high,” according to PIIE. The institute determined that even at a “revenue-maximizing tariff rate,” the U.S. could raise only a fraction of what it raises with income taxes.
Trump wants to ‘abolish’ the IRS and replace federal income tax revenue with tariffs on imports — how would such a move affect middle-class Americans?
Some suspect the president is “dismantling” the IRS for this reason.
Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman is hearing from members of Congress that President Donald Trump’s willingness to raise taxes on the super wealthy is causing a stink on Capitol Hill.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Katie Tur on Friday, Sherman mentioned a Trump post on Truth Social in which he said that Republicans “probably should not” raise taxes — “but I’m OK if they do!!!”
Taxes on the super wealthy? Raise ’em high! Throw in a wealth tax while you’re at it!
‘Political life or death’: Analyst warns GOP at risk as Trump flip flops on core principle
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.
J.D. Vance Justifies Tariffs by Promising Parents Their Kids Will Have American-Made Weapons if ‘God Forbid’ They Go to War
Trump recently issued a a 90-day pause on the tariffs for nearly all nations excluding China
