The US Emergency is Here

The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists: a prison built for disappearance, a prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, a prison where the only way out, according to El Salvador’s justice minister, is in a coffin. The president says he wants to send “homegrown” Americans there next. This is the emergency. Like it or not, it’s here.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen meets with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported man in the notorious El Salvador gulag (NYT / BBC)

The official White House’s response »

What is happening now is not normal politics. We’re seeing an assault on the fundamental institutions of our civic life, things we should all swear loyalty to — Democrat, independent or Republican. It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power. (David Brooks / NYT)

Trump’s Worldwide Trade and Tariff War

Ford Motor has stopped shipping pricey pickup trucks, SUVs and sports cars to China to avoid tariffs (WSJ)

A Pew Research poll finds most Americans think increased tariffs on China will be bad for the US – and for them personally.

The Trump administration took steps to impose levies on Chinese vessels docking at U.S. ports, threatening to shake up global shipping routes and escalate the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies (Bloomberg)

A growing number of wealthy Americans are opening bank accounts in Switzerland as part of the “de-Americanization” of their portfolios, according to investors and banks. Swiss banks say they have seen a surge of interest and business from high-net-worth Americans opening investment accounts in recent months. (MSNBC)

The Ugly

Trump is hailed as a “Soviet leaders’ dream” due to his policies on Ukraine since taking office, according to a prominent Russian expert. Writing in the renowned Russian publication Argumenty I Fakty, the expert applauded the US President for “driving a wedge” between America and “the European part of NATO”. (Irish Star)

Trump will abandon Ukraine peace talks ‘in days’ without progress, warns Rubio (Financial Times)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US is prepared to walk away from peace talks between Ukraine and Russia unless there is progress in the coming days. Rubio was speaking in Paris after holding discussions with European allies on reaching a ceasefire. He added that President Trump is still interested in peace, but the US has many other priorities. (AP / Politico / CNN / Reuters / NYT // Video » DW)

  • Putin slow-walking ceasefire talks (Axios)

Trump is punishing immigrants for following the rules (VOX)

US citizen held despite showing proof of citizenship

  • A US citizen was arrested in Florida for allegedly being in the country illegally and held for pickup by immigration authorities, even after his mother showed a judge her son’s birth certificate and the judge dismissed charges. The man was released after his case received widespread coverage. (AP)

The Americans are changing its mind about what it calls human rights

  • The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department’s annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.
    Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won’t condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on “free and fair elections.” (NPR)

White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, setting up a possible Earth Day strike against organizations seen as standing in the way of Trump’s push for more domestic oil, gas and coal production

  • The effort, described by people familiar with the matter, comes alongside other administration moves to use the US tax code or government funding to single out groups that oppose the president’s agenda. (Bloomberg)

Trump has declared more national emergencies — more creatively and more aggressively — than any president in modern American history (Axios)

Trump administration demands Harvard Records on foreign funds and students (NYT)

Federal judge ‘astounded’ that Florida cops violated her order on immigration arrests (Miami Herald)