GA Senator Jon Ossoff slams Trump’s band of billionaires: ‘They are literally the elites they pretend to hate’
Trump was joined at the NCAA finals by his right-hand man Elon Musk as well as Representative Jim Jordan and Senators Dave McCormick and Markwayne Mullin
Senator Jon Ossoff told a crowd of Georgia constituents that the Trump administration is filled with the mega-rich who “are literally the elites they pretend to hate.”
He made the comments the same day that President Donald Trump was greeted by a wildly supportive crowd at the NCAA men’s wrestling championship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“We’re going to the big fight. The reason I’m going is in Philadelphia. They have the NCAA, world, wrestling for college. And I’ve always supported the wrestlers,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday evening.
Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, as well as Representative Jim Jordan and Senators Dave McCormick and Markwayne Mullin were also in attendance in the president’s floor-level booth.
It is the second time in three years the president has attended the NCAA wrestling championships and the latest sports-related trip Trump has embarked on since he took office. Trump attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500 in Florida.
Trump is a fan of attending public sporting events and has often used them to bolster his political persona.
Before attending the fight in Pennslyvania, the president flew to New Jersey to spend time at his golf club in Bedminster. The president has used most of his weekends to play golf at his club in Mar-a-Lago
Trump administration revoking legal protections for more than 500k migrants
The Department of Homeland Security said it would revoke legal protections for approximately 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have come to the United States since October 2022 under a humanitarian parole program.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said they would lose legal protections on April 24 – 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.
Under the humanitarian program, migrants could come to the U.S. legally if they were from war-torn countries or those facing political instability.
What you missed in Trump's Friday Oval Office Q&A
While President Donald Trump gathered the media in the Oval Office to announce that Boeing had won the contract to build the Air Force’s next generation of fighter jet, he also took questions about a variety of current events.
Here are some highlights:
Judge reprimands ‘disrespectful’ Trump administration attorneys in Alien Enemies Act case
During a high-stakes hearing over Donald Trump’s use of a centuries-old wartime law to swiftly deport suspected Venezuelan gang members, a federal judge rebuked lawyers for the Department of Justice for their “intemperate and disrespectful language” in their responses to court orders.
Trump and his allies have threatened to impeach Judge James Boasberg after he temporarily blocked the administration from deporting immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act and questioned whether the government intentionally defied his court orders to turn planes around before they emptied out dozens of people into a prison in El Salvador last week.
A standoff between the judge, who has ordered the administration to respond to several questions about the flights, has reached a boiling point, and legal scholars and critics of the administration have warned that Trump’s apparent defiance has reached a dangerous constitutional crossroads.
Alex Woodward reports.
Judge scolds ‘disrespectful’ Trump administration attorneys in Alien Enemies Act case
Food banks scrambling as USDA cancels $500m in food deliveries
Despite the pressure food banks find themselves under, with funding down from pandemic highs and inflation high, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has chosen to pause and review existing programs, canceling some $500 million in deliveries.
Such an interruption can have serious consequences for people reliant on food banks — one in every six Americans — and especially those in rural areas.
Per The Washington Post:
Food banks across the country — already facing huge cuts to locally grown food assistance — learned this week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is canceling $500 million in expected food deliveries, further disrupting help at a time when need continues to rise.
Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization, said some local food banks and food pantries were told that USDA deliveries of commodities such as cheese and meat are being canceled at least temporarily. Many others were not notified by federal officials that their deliveries were not coming, he said.
Hall characterized the USDA’s decision as a pause to review existing programs and said his organization is hoping the administration will resume purchases and deliveries “with minimum disruption on the flow of food.” Groups working in rural areas, which rely more on government food than gleaning, would be especially hard hit by a lack of commodities, he said.
Trump’s overstepping the law gets crickets — or praise — from Republicans
Eric Garcia writes:
When President Donald Trump signed his executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, it should have caused consternation from the United States Congress. Presidents cannot unilaterally abolish cabinet departments; they require an act of Congress.
But rather, Trump received praise from almost all Republican lawmakers despite the fact that he subverted their power and took away their authority.
Only a few, like Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, who helped put Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary over the finish line, alluded to proposing legislation.
But it’s just the latest example of Congress utterly abdicating its duties in the name of Trump.
Continue reading...
Trump’s overstepping the law gets crickets — or praise — from Republicans
Judge snaps at Trump administration lawyers for ‘gaslighting’ over trans military ban
The federal judge presiding over a challenge to Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members in the U.S. military unloaded on government lawyers on Friday after the administration asked to dissolve a ruling that blocks the president’s order from taking effect.
Alex Woodward listened in.
Judge snaps at Trump administration lawyers for ‘gaslighting’ over trans military ban
Trump admin lawyers seeks to remove judge in law firm case
President Donald Trump's administration requested that the federal judge overseeing the challenge to Trump's executive order aimed at the law firm Perkins Coie recuse herself from the case, alleging a “pattern of hostility” toward the president.
Justice Department lawyers said U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell's impartiality could “reasonably be questioned.” They referenced her previous rulings against Trump and comments made in cases involving his supporters related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“This Court has not kept its disdain for President Trump secret,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing. “It has voiced its thoughts loudly—both inside and outside the courtroom.”
Last week, Howell temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing much of its order against the Democratic-linked firm Perkins Coie, determining that it likely violated the U.S. Constitution.
The Trump administration has escalated its criticism of federal judges in recent weeks as courts have at times sought to limit Trump's broad use of presidential power.
With reporting from Reuters
Columbia agrees to Trump demands to win back $400m federal funding: report
Columbia University has reportedly agreed to a series of sweeping changes the Trump administration demanded from the Ivy League university to restore $400 million in suspended federal funding.
The university will give police new powers to arrest students, ban face masks at protests, and appoint a university official to oversee changes at its Department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and Center for Palestine Studies.
Josh Marcus reports.
Columbia agrees to Trump demands to win back $400 million federal funding
Is the Democratic Party having its Tea Party moment?
Richard Hall writes:
The election was decided more than four months ago and the next one is years away, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was in full campaign mode when she took to the stage in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon.
“Are you ready to fight? Are you ready to win?” she shouted to a capacity crowd of more than 3,000 people. “We’re gonna take our country back.”
Ocasio-Cortez traveled across the country to join her political mentor Bernie Sanders on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour that will hit several states this week.
Continue reading...
AOC and Bernie hit the road: Is the Democratic Party having its Tea Party moment?
'Sounds good!': Trump weighs in on report King Charles will offer U.S. membership to British Commonwealth
Nearly 250 years after America declared independence from Great Britain, President Donald Trump suggested he was open to taking a small step back towards the warm embrace of the British monarchy after a media outlet reported that King Charles III intends to extend an offer for the United States to join the Commonwealth of Nations.
The King is reportedly preparing to extend the offer of “associate membership” in the voluntary association of 56 nations, most of which have history as former British colonies. Trump, it seems, is open to the idea.
Andrew Feinberg reports.
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