Daily: Complete And Total Incompetence As Trump Slaps Tariffs On Penguins
The Trump White House announced tariffs on the Heard and McDonald Islands. The problem is that no people live there.
Trump’s big “Liberation Day” tariffs event was a disaster. Instead of getting the country excited, Trump revealed that he has come up with an entire delusional fantasy world about tariffs that rewrites American history.
No one is sure how Trump’s White House came up with their list of reciprocal tariffs, but on the final page is the Australian territory of the Heard and McDonald Islands.
The White House Rapid Response X account posted the list of nations that will be getting hit with tariffs, and on the last page are the Herald and McDonald Islands.
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The human population of the islands is zero.
Penguins inhabit the islands.
Donald Trump held a big event in the Rose Garden to slap tariffs on a bunch of Antarctic penguins.
Wired: Trump Tariffs Hit Antarctic Islands Inhabited by Zero Humans and Many Penguins
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American -April 2, 2025 (Wednesday)
Just five months ago, on October 19, 2024, The Economist ran a special report on America’s economy. That economy was, the magazine said, “the envy of the world.” … President Donald J. Trump announced that he will impose a 10% tariff on all imports to the United States, with higher rates on about 60 countries he claims engage in unfair trade practices, including China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea, as well as the European Union.
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Trump’s erratic approach to the economy had already rattled markets, which dropped significantly in the first quarter of this year, and consumer confidence, which recently hit a twelve-year low. Trump waited until the stock market had closed today before he announced the new tariffs. Then, in a speech in the White House Rose Garden, he said: “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike. But it is not going to happen anymore.” Instead, he said, tariffs would create “the golden age of America.”
“Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted. “The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now [close] to $30 trillion or $300,000 per family of four.” “The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” posted former vice president Mike Pence.
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Bulwark: Trump Calls It Liberation. It’s Destruction.
The only thing we’re being liberated from is our prosperity.
WSJ: Trump’s New Protectionist Age
Blowing up the world trading system has consequences that the President isn’t advertising.
President Trump unveiled his new “liberation day” tariffs on Wednesday, and they are another large step toward a new old era of trade protectionism. Assuming the policy sticks—and we hope it doesn’t—the effort amounts to an attempt to remake the U.S. economy and the world trading system.
…We’ll assess the details further in coming days, but for today let’s consider some of the consequences already emerging in this new protectionist age:
- New economic risks and uncertainty.
- Harm to American exports.
- A bigger Washington swamp.
- The end of U.S. economic leadership.
- A major opportunity for China.
Conversation: New modelling reveals full impact of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs – with the US hit hardest
EEAGLI: Tariff Day (Chart Dump)
Bulwark: Trump Calls It Liberation. It’s Destruction.
The only thing we’re being liberated from is our prosperity.
Crucial Years: Hands off…the future
So many ways to wreck and economy, and Trump is trying them all
Within an hour of Trump’s imposition of new tariffs, analysts at J.P. Morgan put out this guidance for their investors:
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Mark Gongloff and Elaine He at Bloomberg produced a remarkable timeline the other day showing in enormous detail how the Trump administration had, in a matter of weeks, undone twenty years worth of efforts to do something about the climate crisis. It’s not like the U.S. had been providing sterling leadership, but “nothing could have prepared us for the breadth or intensity of the assault on climate action that Trump has unleashed during his first months back in office.”
Wired: Trump’s Tariffs Could Reshape the US Tech Industry
Apple, Amazon, and other tech companies reliant on global supply chains stand to lose the most from Trump’s trade policies, but some software firms expect more demand for their services.
Wired: Trump and DOGE Defund Program That Boosted American Manufacturing for Decades
President Donald Trump says taxing imports will strengthen domestic manufacturing. Hours before announcing new tariffs, his administration cut support for centers that help US firms do just that.
NY Times: Senate Votes to Rescind Some Trump Tariffs, With G.O.P. Support
A measure to cancel some Canadian tariffs is all but certain to stall in the House. But with a handful of Republicans in favor, the vote sent a signal of opposition to the levies.
NY Sun: House Democrats Will Force Vote To Block Trump’s Global 10 Percent Tariff After Senate Rebukes President
MSN: No Tariff Exemptions for American Farmers
Robert Reich: What Canada, Mexico, Japan, the UK, and the European Union should do in response to Trump’s grossly irresponsible tariffs
Don’t negotiate. Do this now so you’ll be negotiating from a position of power.
Reader’s Digest: These 10 Foods Will Likely Cost More Thanks to Tariffs
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Jennifer Rubin: Truth still matters
Voters are seeing–and experiencing–that lies have consequences
Victory in the Wisconsin state supreme court race with a record turnout gives democracy advocates plenty of reason for optimism. Money cannot buy everything. Lottery gimmicks and deceptive ads just might have less impact than Elon Musk and his deputy (Donald J. Trump) would hope. That raises the question: Are mere lies the all-powerful weapon that MAGA politicians imagine?
Some of Trump’s most egregious lies have imploded…spectacularly. During the campaign, Donald Trump and his toadies insisted that tariffs would not raise prices. Tariffs, in fact, would make inflation vanish! By December, he said he couldn’t guarantee tariffs wouldn’t raise prices. In early March, he conceded tariffs might cause some…“disturbance.”Now he denies he “ever” said otherwise. Moreover, he doesn’t care if consumers get slammed. “I couldn’t care less. I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.” (No word on how American cars, whose parts will be demolished by tariffs, are going to escape price hikes.) Mad King Donald wants more tariffs! Bigger tariffs! The Biggest!
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Robert Reich: 10 rules for dealing with Trump’s demands for capitulation
Whether it’s universities, law firms, or entire countries, here are 10 basic rules for hitting back
- Stop treating Trump’s excuses as his real concerns.
- For the same reason, stop assuming that Trump is concerned about other nations’ “unfair” trade practices or illegal immigration.
- Trump’s major interest is capitulation itself.
- Each surrender feeds the public impression that Trump wants fed — that he is all-powerful, invincible, and able to get every person, institution, and country to cower to him.
- Each capitulation encourages him and his goons to engage in even more bullying of more institutions and countries.
- Most of these institutions and countries will cave to Trump because their leaders are mainly concerned about their own institution’s or country’s survival.
- It’s vitally important, therefore, that institutions and countries join together to fight this systemic intimidation.
- University faculties must join together
- Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union must join together
- The media must not fan the flames of Trump’s madness.
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Root: This Black Chick-Fil-A Employee Got Shortchanged For Her Company Scholarship, Then Something Amazing Happened
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NY Times: Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold Funds From Public Schools
The Trump administration threatened on Thursday to withhold federal funding from public schools unless state education officials verified the elimination of all programs that it said unfairly promoted diversity, equity and inclusion.
In a memo sent to top public education officials across the country, the Education Department said that funding for schools with high percentages of low-income students, known as Title I funding, was at risk pending compliance with the administration’s directive.
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MetaFilter: Black Sites
The U.S. is “just profoundly grateful,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, for El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s offer to incarcerate criminals being held in American prisons — including U.S. citizens and legal residents — in his country’s jails.
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Dispatch: In Canada, Trump Is on the Ballot
And he is losing. So are U.S. interests.
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Bulwark: Trump’s War on the Universities
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Daily Kos: RFK Jr. fired veterinarians working on bird flu because he’s incompetent
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News Nation: Pentagon watchdog to review Hegseth’s use of Signal app to convey plans for Houthi strike
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AP: Trump fired several national security officials deemed insufficiently loyal, AP sources say
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Alternet: Busted: Emails show Trump admin targeted state’s Social Security as political revenge
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Intercept: Trump Just Pardoned … a Corporation?
In what may be an American first, President Donald Trump pardoned a company sentenced to $100 million in fines for breaking money laundering laws.
Amid a flurry of pardons President Donald Trump issued to white-collar criminals last week, one name that has largely escaped notice did not belong to a person at all.In what may have been a first, Trump pardoned a corporation. The company to earn that distinction was a cryptocurrency exchange sentenced to a $100 million fine for violating an anti-money laundering law.
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Bulwark: Newsmax Is the Trumpcession’s Perfect Metaphor
Let’s all celebrate losing money!
Newsmax CEO and the famously sober lawyer Rudy Giuliani ring in the bell at the NYSE on April 3, 2025. Moments later the Dow dropped 1,500 points, S&P 500 lost 4%, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 5%. But it didn’t stop these brilliant capitalists from celebrating.
Yay, Capitalism
Because God has a sense of humor, today Newsmax rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange.No, really.
In case you missed it, Newsmax (NMAX) did an IPO on Monday. The stock debuted at $10 a share and jumped to $82 in its first day of trading. I know what you’re thinking: That’s insane!
Newsmax loses money every quarter and has very little revenue. It has ongoing legal exposure. The linear cable industry, of which it is a part, is in a death spiral.
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Intercept: Smoke and Errors
The Arson Evidence Doesn’t Hold Up. Florida Is About to Convict Her for Murder Anyway.
Megan Wallace had just been booked at the St. Johns County Jail in St. Augustine, Florida, when she started hearing gossip about its most notorious resident. Michelle Taylor had allegedly set fire to her own house in 2018, killing her 11-year-old son. The motive was insurance money. Everyone at the jail seemed disgusted by her. “The guards treated her like shit,” Wallace said.
A mother herself, Wallace vowed to stay away from Taylor. But after a couple of months, Taylor was moved out of solitary confinement and into her cellblock. “The stories I’d heard didn’t add up to how she was in real life,” Wallace said. Taylor was withdrawn and heavily medicated. Other women at the jail were openly cruel toward her, but she didn’t lash out. “She slept all day and wouldn’t get up for breakfast or lunch.”
Wallace knew how it felt to be judged by people who didn’t have all the facts. …
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Daily Beast: Ex-Social Security Head: This Is When Elon Musk Will Stop Checks Going Out
ZERO DAY
Martin O’Malley, who ran Social Security under President Joe Biden, reveals that Elon Musk is well on his way to spoiling the agency’s perfect record.Whether or not Elon Musk does step down as chainsawer-in-chief in the weeks ahead, the Social Security Administration (SSA) may be on the way to spoiling a perfect record of having sent out benefit checks every month since the very first one on Aug. 14, 1935.
“The Trump co-presidency is gutting this agency,” former SSA Administrator Martin O’Malley told the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Tuesday. “It is breaking it from within, and it ultimately will lead to cascading failures, interruptions and system shutdowns that will eventually and I think within the next couple of months lead to benefit interruptions for the first time in 90 years.”
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Lucian K. Truscott IV: Pride and fear and Trump
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Closer to the Edge: Before You Protest: A Nationwide Guide to Staying Safe, Smart, and Unshakable on April 5
Heading to a “Hands Off!” protest this Saturday? Here’s everything you need to know — your rights, safety tips, and what to do if arrested.
