New tariffs on cars and car parts
Donald Trump has announced new trade tariffs, this time on cars made overseas as well as car parts manufactured in foreign countries and then imported to the U.S. to be included in cars assembled in the U.S. The new tariffs will be 25% and are expected to drive up the costs of vehicles by thousands of dollars. The head of the group Auto Drive America, which represents some car manufacturers, said Trump’s new tariffs will lead to higher prices for vehicles and fewer manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
SSA delays implementation of plan making access more difficult
The Social Security Administration has delayed until April 14 the start of its plan to make millions of people go to its offices in order to obtain benefits they have earned rather than being able to transact business over the phone. SSA workers had not been trained in how to implement the new plan. There also has been an outcry against the plan, which many see as part of an effort by Donald Trump and Elon Musk to end the Social Security program and turn over its two trillion dollars in accumulated funds to private companies. Social Security is going ahead with plans to close 47 field offices in 18 states.
White House and AP back in court
As of Thursday morning, the White House had not reconsidered its ban on Associated Press coverage of presidential activities as it had been urged to do by Federal Judge Trevor McFadden. McFadden urged voluntary action before today’s scheduled hearing in the lawsuit brought by the AP against the Trump Administration for allegedly interfering with freedom of the press and free speech. The White House moved to restrict what the AP could report after the AP refused to change its style to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America as ordered by President Trump.
Student snatched off street by federal agents
A video has surfaced showing agents of the Trump Administration handcuffing a Tufts University student on a public street in Somerville, Massachusetts, and without charges taking her away in an unmarked vehicle to be flown to Louisiana where she was being held and denied contact with lawyers. The federal agents were dressed in black and wore black masks to cover their faces. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called it an ambush and intimidation and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley called it a horrifying violation of Constitutional rights.
Vitamin A toxicity
With the measles outbreak growing to 379 cases in Texas and other states, the Trump Administration has cut funding for disease prevention programs in Texas. Some doctors are now reporting having treated children who are showing signs of liver toxicity from being given too much Vitamin A. Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of being against vaccinations, has promoted Vitamin A and cod liver oil, which contains Vitamin A, as being miracle cures for measles. Some patients with measles show a Vitamin A deficiency, but there is no scientific evidence that proves Vitamin A is a miracle cure for measles.
Appeals court blocks Trump’s Alien Enemies Act deportations
A federal appeals court has upheld Federal Judge James Boasberg’s rulings that temporarily block the Trump Administration from conducting deportations to El Salvador. The Trump Administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act, saying the act empowered it to take people off the streets and deport them without affording them due process of law. The appeals court ruling upholding Judge Boasberg was by a vote of two to one. The Trump Administration was expected to ask the Supreme Court to take up the case.
