Writers and Editors

• The End of USAID (selections from a major ProPublica series, 2025)

The U.S. Agency for International Development saved lives and promoted American interests around the globe. As the Trump administration abandons the decades-long approach to soft power, ProPublica investigates the fallout — including the millions of people now at heightened risk of disease and death.

 

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Even if you don't read the stories, look at the photos and captions to get a sense of the effects of Trump's destructive policies.

• The End of Aid

    (Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 2-9-25)

Trump Destroyed USAID. What Happens Now?
    An important, well-illustrated series.

• How spending $153M to pay its bills put USAID in DOGE’s crosshairs

(Nahal Toosi and Robbie Gramer, Politico, 2-8-25) Read More 

Revised, expanded, 12-22-25. I did not understand what people meant by "the Deep State." What follow are explanations I have found online and share here because I doubt I am the only one who didn't get it. I hope others can provide links to further explanations (or examples).  

 

• Deconstructing the Deep State (Charles S. Clark, in Government Executive)

    Donald Trump isn’t the first president to be deeply skeptical of the institutions and people he now leads.
    “When Democrats come to Washington, they arrive as an army of liberation. They turn to the civil service and say, `We love you, go forth and let 1,000 flowers bloom.’ Then comes the madness, and the Democrats wake up,” Turk said.

     “Then the Republicans arrive as a conquering army and put their heels on the neck of the civil service. But after about a year or 18 months, they realize that they actually need them to run the place. So they take their heels off the necks, and things are fine.”
     The label deep state “assumes there’s some kind of planned conspiracy going on,” said Donald Devine, who headed the Office of Personnel Management in the Reagan administration, who still bemoans the obstacles to firing federal employees. “It is irrational to allow people to run around government doing anything they want, simply following the parochial interests of their agencies. Federal employees need and legally require political supervision, which was the essence of the Carter reforms, a lesson that the Trump administration Office of Management and Budget needs to explain to the White House rather than promoting a naïve version of the permanent bureaucracy.”
      “To refer to career civil servants in the U.S. government as some form of deep state is a clear attempt to delegitimize voices of disagreement," says Read More 

On The Bulwark: 

"I often wonder what these voters think about Trump today as the administration’s immigration policy objectives have progressed from:

 

Build the wall

→ Deport the murderers and rapists

→ Deport everyone with any immigration irregularity, even if they have no criminal record

→ Revoke temporary protected status for legal immigrant groups so that they can be deported

→ End birthright citizenship

→ Ban legal migration from “Third World Countries”

→ Denaturalize disfavored naturalized citizens

→ “Remigration” or “Reverse migration”

 

"Do the Republicans finally understand that Trump and his administration want them gone, too? That when Trump talked about the border and immigration it was never just about deporting murderers and rapists?"

      Source: “Heritage Americans” and the Nazi Horse (Jonathan V. Last, The Bulwark, 12-9-25)

             H/T Leah Abrahams

_________________

 

Trump's efforts to deport nonwhite immigrants

• Hundreds of Thousands of Anonymous Deportees (Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic, 11-9-25)
• They Came to the U.S. Legally. Then Trump Stripped Their Status Away. (Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, ProPublica, 12-10-25. Co-published with FRONTLINE and Univision News) In addition to the story, this links to: “Status: Venezuelan,” a new documentary from ProPublica filmmaker Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, follows a family trying to hold on to their legal status as the second Trump administration targets Venezuelans amid an immigration crackdown.

 

   Amid the president’s fast-moving deportation campaign, the stories of most people being swept up are missed.

• Judge Orders Abrego Garcia’s Release From ICE Detention (Alan Feuer, NY Times, 12-11-25) "A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in March, saying it was “troubling” that the Trump administration had kept him in custody for nearly four months while promising to re-expel him from the country without actually having done so.
    "The ruling by the judge, Paula Xinis, was a stinging defeat for the administration in a long and byzantine saga that over the past year has transformed Mr. Abrego Garcia from an unknown Salvadoran migrant living in Maryland into one of the best-known symbols of President Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda."
• Detainees at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ facing ‘harrowing human right violations’, new report alleges (Richard Luscombe, The Guardian 12-4-25) Amnesty International finds immigrants at Florida facility were shackled and left outside in metal cage for up to a day. A separate July report by Human Rights Watch alleged detainees were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from Styrofoam plates "like dogs". (H/T Cj Madigan)
• More than 220 judges have now rejected the Trump admin’s mass detention policy (Kyle Cheney, Politico Toplines, 12-28-25)

   The Trump administration’s bid to systematically lock up nearly all immigrants facing deportation proceedings has led to a fierce — and mounting — rejection by courts across the country. That effort, which began with an abrupt policy change by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 8, has led to a tidal wave of emergency lawsuits after ICE’s targets were arrested at workplaces, courthouses or check-ins with immigration officers. Many have lived in the U.S. for years, and sometimes decades, without incident and have been pursuing asylum or other forms of legal status.

At least 225 judges have ruled in more than 700 cases that the administration’s new policy, which also deprives people of an opportunity to seek release from an immigration court, is a likely violation of law and the right to due process. Those judges were appointed by all modern presidents — including 23 by Trump himself — and hail from at least 35 states
---They Never Thought Trump Would Have Them Deported (Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic, 4-15-25)
--- ‘It’s Never Been This Bad’ (Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic, 10-11-25)  Read More 

According to research by the Pew Research Center

• Where regular users of 30 news sources place themselves by party, ideology (Pew Research Center, 6-10-25)

• Most Americans say government has a responsibility to ensure health care coverage (Andrew Daniller, Pew Research Center, 12-10-25)

Most Americans (66%) say the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage.

• Public Trust in Government: 1958-2025 (Pew Research Center, 12-4-25)

    Just 17% of Americans now say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (15%). While trust in government has been low for decades, the current measure is one of the lowest in the nearly seven decades since the question was first asked by the National Election Study, and it is lower than it was last year (22%).

• How Americans feel about the Republican and Democratic parties

     (Steven Shepard,Andy Cerda,Joseph Copeland,Ted Van Green and Shanay Gracia, Pew Research, 10-30-25)

A year ahead of the midterms, Americans' dim views of both parties.

Americans largely have negative feelings toward both political parties, while positive sentiments are far less common. Three-quarters of U.S. adults say the Democratic Party makes them feel frustrated, while a smaller majority (64%) says the same of the Republican Party.

Both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly express negative feelings toward the opposing party.

Democrats are more widely viewed as respectful of democracy and tolerant of different types of people.

Many Americans express frustration with both parties, especially Democrats

Democrats are highly critical of their own party; Republicans feel much more positively about the GOP
Main reason why Democrats say they are frustrated with their party: Democratic leaders aren’t fighting hard enough against Donald Trump

Nearly half of Republicans say the GOP is too extreme; 38% of Democrats say the same of their party

Nearly a third of Americans say both parties are ‘too extreme’; about a quarter say neither governs in an honest and ethical way

• How Americans View the Israel-Hamas Conflict 2 Years Into the War (Pew Research, 10-3-25)

About six-in-ten now have an unfavorable view of the Israeli government, with a rising share saying Israel is ‘going too far.’

• Growing share of Americans say fewer people having kids would negatively impact the U.S.

    (Rachel Minkin, Pew Research, 9-30-25)

• How well the Republican and Democratic parties represent Americans’ interests (10-30-25)

About four-in-ten U.S. adults (42%) say the Republican Party represents the interests of people like them very or somewhat well.

A similar share (40%) say this about the Democratic Party.

A quarter of Americans say neither party represents their interests well.

Most Americans feel represented by only one of the political parties.

• Growing share of Americans say the U.S. higher education system is headed in the wrong direction

In both parties, the share that say the higher education system is going in the wrong direction has gone up by at least 10 percentage points since 2020. 

• How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy?

    (Eileen Yam, Emma Kikuchi and Isabelle Pula, Pew Research, 11-18-25)

Nearly two-thirds have high confidence in vaccine effectiveness, and about half trust their safety testing and schedule

Republican support for school vaccine requirements continues to slide

• Americans’ views of allies and threats

    (Eileen Yam, Emma Kikuchi and Isabelle Pula, Pew Research, 5-1-25)

When asked which country poses the greatest threat to the U.S., China remains at the top of Americans’ list.

Since we last asked this question in 2023, however, the share who name China as the biggest threat has declined, while the share who name Russia has grown.

China poses the greatest threat to the U.S. when asked in an open-ended question.

Russia is named by the next-largest share (25%).

Smaller shares say no country (4%), the U.S. itself (3%) or Iran (2%) is the greatest threat.

Roughly four-in-ten Americans (37%) say they are unsure which country is the United States’ greatest ally. As in the past, the United Kingdom is mentioned more than any other nation.

But the shares who call Canada or Israel the top ally have increased since 2023. 

• Demographics of Americans who get most of their political news from social media

    (Amy Mitchell, Mark Jurkowitz, J. Baxter Oliphantm and Elisa Shearer, Pew Research Center, 7-30-2020)

1. "Americans who mainly get their news on social media are less engaged, less knowledgeable."

2. U.S. adults who mostly get news through social media lag behind others in attention to election and pandemic news

3. U.S. adults who mostly rely on social media for political news are often less knowledgeable about current events

4. In addition to lower awareness of current events, social media news users hear more about some unproven claims

 

[Back to Top]

Trump's fixation on tariffs: a roundup blog post, updated 1-16-26

• Canada Breaks With U.S. to Slash Tariffs on Some Chinese Electric Vehicles

(Matina Stevis-Gridneff, NY Times, 1-16-26)

    Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced that Canada would slash tariffs on some Chinese electric vehicles and that, in return, China would reduce tariffs on Canadian canola products.

    The tariff changes Mr. Carney announced were modest, but they signal an important break with the United States as Canada seeks to urgently diversify its trading partners and reduce its reliance on the United States.

    President Trump has imposed tariffs on some key Canadian exports like lumber, steel and autos. He has also threatened Canadian sovereignty, a shift Mr. Carney has described as a "rupture."

• The $12 billion farm bailout. Trump Bails Out the Farmers He Kneecapped with Tariffs — Again (National Review, 12-9-25)

    “It’s becoming part of the Trump playbook. It goes like this:

(1) Farmers overwhelmingly vote for Donald Trump to be president.

(2) Trump imposes enormous tariffs unilaterally, wrecking the export markets that farmers rely on to sell their crops at profitable prices,” the editors said.

(3) "Farmers lobby the Trump administration to give them money at taxpayers’ expense to cope with the effects of the same administration’s trade policy.

(4) Trump bails out the farmers with billions of federal dollars and changes nothing about the tariffs that hurt them in the first place.”

   "That looks a lot like what happened in President Trump’s first term, when his trade wars shrank U.S. agricultural exports by $27 billion in just a year and a half, from mid-2018 through 2019. After targeting China with tariffs, the PRC imposed retaliatory tariffs on the United States, hitting soybeans — America’s largest agricultural export — especially hard. Now, the same process is unfolding once more. Trump announced on Monday a $12 billion aid package for farmers injured by his global trade war.

     "The proper solution to farmers’ financial woes in 2025 is the same as it was in 2018: end the tariffs. Instead, the Trump administration has chosen to paint over the problem with a $12 billion bailout." 

• How Far Can Donald Trump Take Emergency Power? (Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 11-6-25)

     In the Supreme Court’s tariffs case, the conservative Justices will weigh two conflicting impulses regarding Presidential authority.

• Tracking Trump Tariffs on Countries and Products (NY Times interactive, 7-28-25, excellent graphics)

    Since returning to office, President Trump has waged a global trade war without parallel in modern history. Many economists had warned that these sky-high rates, and others around the world could, result in price increases for Americans, who generally bear the costs of higher imports. Perhaps in an indirect acknowledgment of that, Mr. Trump announced in November that he would lift tariffs on bread, beef, tomatoes, bananas, coffee and orange juice.

• Court appears dubious of Trump’s tariffs (Amy Howe, SCOTUS blog, 11-5-25)

   "The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed skeptical of President Donald Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs in a series of executive orders earlier this year. During more than two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments, a majority of the justices appeared to agree with the small businesses and states challenging the tariffs that they exceeded the powers given to the president under a federal law providing him the authority to regulate commerce during national emergencies created by foreign threats.
    "The law at the center of the case is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Enacted in 1977, the president can invoke it “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States,” if he declares a national emergency “with respect to such threat.” Under Section 1702 of the law, when there is a national emergency, the president may “regulate … importation or exportation” of “property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest.”
---The International Emergency Economic Powers Act: Origins, Evolution, and Use (Congress.gov)

• Key Justices Cast a Skeptical Eye on Trump’s Tariffs (Ann E. Marimow, NY times, 11-5-25)

    "The Supreme Court is considering whether the president acted legally when he used a 1977 emergency statute to impose tariffs on scores of countries. A majority of Supreme Court justices on Wednesday asked skeptical questions about President Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on imports from nearly every U.S. trading partner, casting doubt on a centerpiece of the administration’s second-term agenda.
    "The outcome of the case, which could be decided within weeks or months, has immense economic and political implications for U.S. businesses, consumers and the president’s trade policy.
    "Several members of the court’s conservative majority, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, joined the liberal justices in sharply questioning the Trump administration’s assertion that it has the power to unilaterally impose tariffs without congressional approval.
    The three liberal justices, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said: “You want to say tariffs are not taxes, but that’s exactly what they are. They are generating money from American citizens.”

• Trump, With Tariffs and Threats, Tries to Strong-Arm Nations to Retreat on Climate Goals (Lisa Friedman, NY Times, 8-27-25)

    "The president has made no secret of his distaste for wind and solar in America. Now he’s taking his fossil fuel agenda overseas. Mr. Trump, who has joined with Republicans in Congress to shred federal support for electric vehicles and for solar and wind energy, is applying tariffs, levies and other mechanisms of the world’s biggest economy to induce other countries to burn more fossil fuels. His animus is particularly focused on the wind industry, which is a well-established and growing source of electricity in several European countries as well as in China and Brazil."

• What Trump’s new tariffs mean for pharmaceuticals and ‘patented’ drugs (Vivian Ho, Victoria Craw and Daniel Gilbert, Washington Post, 9-2-25)

    Trump said brand-name prescription drugs would be subject to tariffs unless their manufacturers are actively building plants in the United States, sparking some confusion over how the policy would be implemented.

• Donald Trump has a total meltdown after Ontario implements a 25% surcharge on electricity in retaliation for his tariffs (Occupy Democrats, Twitter thread, 3-11-25)

       Donald Trump has a total meltdown after Ontario implements a 25% surcharge on electricity in retaliation for his tariffs — whines that "your not even allowed to do that" and announces a "National Emergency on Electricity." Persuasive Facebook article. "Trump pictures himself as an emperor overseeing an ever-expanding American empire."

     "In reality, Canada has zero interest in joining the United States. They are their own nation, with a proud history, culture, and civic structure. Why would they want to become part of a country overseen by a doddering, ignorant old man? "

 

• U.S. Economy Slowed in First Half of 2025 as Tariffs Scrambled Data (Ben Casselman, NY Times, 7-30-25) Gross domestic product rebounded in the spring after contracting at the start of the year, but consumer spending remained weak. “Headline numbers are hiding the economy’s true performance, which is slowing as tariffs take a bite out of activity,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist for the insurer Nationwide, wrote in a note to clients.

• History of tariffs in the United States (Wikipedia) Good for an overview of what happened when.
---Protectionism in the United States § 1980s to present
---Tariffs in the second Trump administration

 

• A Wild Card for the Board Game Business: Trump’s Tariffs (Hannah Ziegler, NY Times, 8-23-25) Trade war uncertainty is forcing board and card game publishers in the United States to make tough decisions, putting the future of the industry in jeopardy.

 

• Appeals court strikes down many Trump tariffs, but delays enforcement until October (Devan Cole, Katelyn Polantz, Ramishah Maruf, and Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Business, 8-29-25) A federal appeals court Friday struck down many of President Donald Trump’s historic tariffs, saying he unlawfully leaned on emergency powers to impose the import taxes.

    The International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs like the ones Trump used the law for earlier this year, the Federal Circuit said in an unsigned opinion upholding a lower-court ruling against Trump’s tariffs. The judges noted that Trump’s unprecedented tariffs are an overstep of his power because the ability to impose taxes, including tariffs, is “a core Congressional power” that the Constitution grants to the legislative branch.     

     Trump has used his sweeping tariffs to reshape not just global trade, but alliances with friendly nations and relationships with adversaries. The levies are a cornerstone of his economic plan.
---Trump’s global tariffs are unlawful, appeals court says (Katherine Faulders, Peter Charalambous, and Steven Portnoy, ABC News, 8-29-25) The tariffs remain in effect as the Trump administration is expected to appeal.

• 'The Economist' editor unpacks the 'biggest trade policy shock' of Trump's tariffs (Terry Gross, Fresh Air, 4-9-25) President Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs have upended the global economy, sending stock markets into turmoil. "This is, without a doubt, the biggest trade policy shock, I think, in history," Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, says.

    "Trump last week ordered a minimum 10% tax on nearly everything the U.S. buys from other countries. He's also ordered much higher levies on things the country buys from China, Japan and the European Union. However, a lot of those tariffs are in flux, because almost each day the president has either increased some tariffs or paused others." And then he increased them to preposterous proportions.

• Trump’s tariffs are devastating the Halloween industry (Natasha Chen, CNN, 10-2-25)

    Zephro’s company, Trick or Trick Studios, produces and imports goods that are sold to more than 10,000 retailers around the world, 65% in the United States. He has paid upwards of $800,000 in tariff costs so far this year. The Halloween and Costume Association said roughly 90% of Halloween products contain at least one component made overseas, most often in China.  

• 'Punch our customers in the face.' Farm concerns about Trump tariffs could fuel 2026 races (Bart Jansen USA Today, 10-2-25) Tariffs could become a campaign issue in several states that are highly dependent on trade with open or competitive Senate seats such as Iowa, Michigan and North Carolina.

    Trump contends tariffs will bring trillions of dollars to the Treasury and force other countries to negotiate more favorable trade deals. Carmakers in Michigan have largely shielded customers from billions in tariff costs, but polling reveals concerns about prospects for inflation and job cuts.         

    Soybean farmers such as Caleb Ragland are worried the country's largest agricultural export could lose China as a customer in the trade war.

• Investors could face a bonfire night surprise on Trump tariffs (Gillian Tett, Opinion, Financial Times, 10-3-25) The legal tussle over the president’s trade policy is a result of the way he wields power.
     "Now another drama looms: on November 5, the Supreme Court will start to consider whether Trump’s tariffs, introduced under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), are legal — or not.
     "If they are ultimately deemed illegal, there is a chance the White House may have to repay billions of dollars of tariff revenue to businesses, creating trade and fiscal chaos. It could also undermine Trump’s approach to geoeconomics, the use of economic policy for statecraft, since he currently assumes he can act without asking Congress."

• VIDEO: Trump's tariffs, changing markets and what an uncertain economy means for you (NPR Staff, 10-2-25) "When President Trump came into office, he promised to fuel an economic boom with a magic bullet: tariffs. They're taxes added to a wide range of imports. And money is coming in, more than $30 billion a month so far.
    "Eight months into Trump's second term, it's unclear what the larger impact of these tariffs will have on the economy. Despite that, the president keeps promising to roll out new ones. NPR's chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley explains."

• Trump’s tariffs as fiscal folly (Kimberly Clausing Maurice Obstfeld, CEPR, 10-20-25)

    "In 2025, the US government underwent a large fiscal switch, with Congress enacting large income tax cuts and the second Trump administration putting new tariffs on goods at levels not seen in the US since the Great Depression. This column evaluates tariffs as a broad tool of fiscal policy, reviewing both tax policy and macroeconomic considerations, and concludes that this fiscal switch will leave most Americans worse off.
    "While tariffs can be a useful tool for some circumstances in a rules-based system (for example, as a remedy or safeguard), the Trump administration’s ad hoc deployment of high tariffs against nearly every country in the world does serious harm to US international economic and political relations. The underlying policy aims of tariffs, some of which are laudable, would be far better addressed through other tools. For instance, many other changes in the tax system can raise general revenue, the income tax system can redistribute income, and subsidies can encourage strategic industries, all at a lower efficiency cost than deploying tariffs."

 

• Why this farmer calls Trump's tariffs a 'complete bust' (Josh Lipton, Yahoo Finance Video, 10-3-25) Farmer and former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, Blake Hurst, joins Market Domination Overtime host Josh Lipton to discuss Trump's tariff policies and what a bailout and would mean for American farmers. "We put on tariffs, collect money, and then we take that money, which we've collected from American consumers including farmers who buy imported goods. We take that money and give it to the industry that's been hurt by those very same tariffs. Seems to me that it would make a lot more sense to get rid of the middle man, drop the tariffs and again, resume normal trade relations."

• Robert De Niro Slams Trump In Cannes Honorary Palme d’Or Speech: “We Are Fighting Like Hell For The Democracy We Once Took For Granted” (Melanie Goodfellow, Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 5-23-25)

    An impassioned De Niro used his acceptance speech to address issues he said are facing the artistic community and threatening democracy under the presidency of Donald Trump. “In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive, it brings people together. Art embraces diversity and that’s why art is a threat, that’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists,” he said.
    “America’s philistine president has had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions,” he continued. “He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education. And now he has announced a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the U.S. Let that sink in. … You can’t put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it.”

    “This is not just an American problem, it’s a global one,” he said. “We can’t all just sit back and watch. We have to act and we have to act now, not with violence but with great passion and determination. It’s time for everyone who cares about liberty to organize, to protest — and when there are elections, of course, to vote. Tonight and for the next 11 days we show our strength and commitment by celebrating art in this glorious festival. Libérté, égalité, fraternité.”

• Trump 2.0 tariff tracker (ReedSmith, Trade Compliance Resource Hub, 5-5-25) Reed Smith’s International Trade and National Security team tracks the latest threatened and implemented U.S. tariffs, as well as counter-tariffs  Read More