Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 28, 2025
“Another wipeout walloped Wall Street Friday,” Stan Choe of the Associated Press wrote today. The S&P 500 had one of its worst days in two years, dropping 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 715 points, losing 1.7% of its value. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.7%. On Tuesday, news dropped that the administration’s blanket firings and wildly shifting tariff policies have dropped consumer confidence to a low it has not hit since January 2021. Today’s stock market tumble started after the Commerce Department released data showing that consumer prices are rising faster than economists expected.
AIG chief international economist James Knightley said: “We are moving in the wrong direction and the concern is that tariffs threaten higher prices, which means the inflation prints are going to remain hot.” Business leaders like lower interest rates, which reduce borrowing costs and make it cheaper to finance business initiatives, but with rising inflation, the Federal Reserve will be less likely to cut interest rates.
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ABC: Myanmar-Thailand earthquake live updates: Over 1,000 dead, officials say
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled much of Southeast Asia on Friday.
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News Nation: State Department sends Congress letter saying it’s taking over USAID
- State Department tells Congress it’s absorbing USAID by July 1
- USAID employees asked to leave office midday Friday
- Myanmar earthquake response compromised by USAID cuts: Source
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Guardian: Top US vaccine official resigns over RFK Jr’s ‘misinformation and lies’
Dr Peter Marks was seen as a guardrail against any future politicisation of the FDA’s approval of life-saving vaccines
…ArsTechnica: The CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccinations
Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica.
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NY Times: Trump Suffers Day of Losses in His Retribution Campaign Against Law Firms
The rulings barred the administration from carrying out punishments described in the executive orders, like banning their lawyers from government buildings, meetings, or jobs.
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Timothy Snyder: The Imperialism Has no Clothes
“No one would allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit of his office.” Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
Musk-Trump inherited a state with unprecedented power and functionality, and are taking it apart. They also inherited a set of alliances and relationships that underpinned the largest economy in world history. This too they are breaking.
The American vice-president, JD Vance, visited an American base Greenland for three hours yesterday, along with his wife. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and his wife also came along.
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Sarah Jones: Trump/Musk Blocked from ‘Irreparable Harm’ in Triumph for the People
In a triumph for the people and for those who value actual sound financial governance, a federal judge blocked Trump from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday. The CFPB is an independent agency of the government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector, which was put into place when? Oh, after the crash of 2008. You know, the last time deregulation and lack of oversight caused Americans to lose their homes and retirement accounts.
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The Hill: Indiana Republican faces fiery crowd after defending Musk, DOGE
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) faced a fiery crowd during her two-hour townhall in Westfield, a northern suburb of Indianapolis, after defending tech billionaire Elon Musk and his work for President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Spartz, who represents Indiana’s fifth Congressional District, was repeatedly drowned out by boos from the raucous crowd during her Friday townhall. She talked about Russia’s three-year invasion of Ukraine and refused to call on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz to resign over the Signal chat debacle.
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AP: Critics see Trump attacks on the ‘Black Smithsonian’ as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.
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Independent: Hegseth brought his wife to high-level foreign meetings where sensitive information was shared: report
Amid the fallout over the Signalgate group chat between national security officials that inadvertently included the editor of The Atlantic, a report has emerged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brought his wife to two meetings with foreign military officials.
The Wall Street Journal reports that sensitive information was discussed in both meetings, one with U.K. officials and another with NATO defense ministers, according to multiple people who were either present or had knowledge of the discussions.
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AP: Protesters rebelling against Elon Musk’s purge of US government swarm Tesla showrooms
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Crowds protesting billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump began amassing outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the world’s richest man.
…Verge: We went to 10 anti-Tesla protests — and a couple counter protests, too
As it enters its third month, the Tesla Takedown movement shows no signs of slowing down.
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Fast Company: Trump wants to destroy unions. A general strike is the only way to fight back
Now is not the time for organized labor to sit in conference rooms with their lawyers.
The worst thing that the federal government has done to labor unions in my lifetime happened this week. Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that the government will no longer recognize and bargain with a huge portion of the unions that represent federal workers. Among the agencies where he says he is tossing out the union contracts are the VA, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Department of Energy, the EPA, the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice, and others.To justify this move, Trump said that all of these agencies are involved in “national security.” This is a fiction. His statement also said that “Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda,” which is closer to the true motivation. He doesn’t like these unions, so he is just trying to erase them with the stroke of a pen.
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Cardinal News: I drove 300 miles in rural Virginia, then asked police to send me their public surveillance footage of my car. Here’s what I learned.
Anyone might wonder how often they are caught on police cameras that operate 24/7. I spent a day driving, and over a month trying to get the answer.
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NY Times: ‘Should I Fire Him?’ Inside Trump’s Deliberations Over the Fate of Michael Waltz
In public, President Trump has defended his national security adviser. But behind the scenes, he has been casting around for advice.
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But for Mr. Trump, the real problem did not appear to be his national security adviser’s carelessness about discussing military plans on a commercial app, the people said. It was that Mr. Waltz may have had some kind of connection to Mr. Goldberg, a Washington journalist whom Mr. Trump loathes. The president expressed displeasure about how Mr. Waltz had Mr. Goldberg’s number in his phone.