The Ugly

Two teenage girls from Germany were detained, arrested, and deported at an airport in Hawaii after immigration officials said it was suspicious they had not booked a hotel room (The Daily Beast)

Immigration officials detained a US citizen for nearly 10 days in Arizona, according to court records and press reports.

  • 19-year-old Jose Hermosillo, a New Mexico resident visiting Arizona, was detained by border patrol agents in Nogales, a city along the Mexico border about an hour south of Tucson. According to a border patrol criminal complaint, on 8 April, a border patrol official found Hermosillo “without the proper immigration documents” and claimed that the young American had admitted entering the US illegally from Mexico. Two days later, the federal court document notes that Hermosillo continued to claim he was a US citizen. On 17 April, a federal judge dismissed his case. (The Guardian)

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen on a second Signal group chat, this one on his personal phone and including his wife, lawyer, and brother (CNN)

  • Former Pentagon official warns department’s dysfunction could topple Pete Hegseth (Politico)
  • Hegseth blames Signal group chat story on ‘disgruntled former employees’ (NBC)
  • The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary (NPR)
  • ‘Full-blown meltdown’ at Pentagon after Hegseth’s second Signal chat revealed (The Guardian)

Corporations gave Trump’s inaugural committee US$250 Million. Trump’s record haul is an ethics nightmare

  • Much of the donors are seeking—and in many cases have already received—valuable favours from the administration of the famously transactional president. The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed the committee’s filing ahead of a Sunday deadline, reported that the funding haul far exceeded what the committee needed for the January 20 event, leaving millions of dollars (it’s not clear exactly how much) in a fund Trump can use for other purposes. His aides have said the surplus will help fund Trump’s planned library and charities aligned with the president. Donations to the inauguration by tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Meta (Facebook / Instagram) —apparently eager to display fealty to Trump—have previously drawn criticism, but the new filing reveals that a far larger group of companies and rich Americans also kicked in. (Mother Jones)

Trump’s Justice Department agrees to let DOGE access sensitive immigration case data

  • Justice Department staff were instructed to begin preparing ECAS accounts for the DOGE team, the documents show, including former hedge fund staffer Adam Hoffman as well as Payton Rehling and Jon Koval, both of whom work at a private equity firm tied to Elon Musk. The team also includes Marko Elez, who resigned from the government in February after the Wall Street Journal linked him to a social media account that had made racist posts. He was rehired after Musk dismissed the significance of the posts. (WaPo)

Pioneering cancer researcher, arrested at Boston airport, so far in ICE detention centre in Louisiana for two months

  • A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention centre for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk. (NBC)

Trump’s Worldwide Trade and Tariff War

Rich Americans are flocking to Swiss banks amid Trump’s seesawing economic policies, looking to safeguard their assets overseas (Quartz)

China returns new Boeing jets as Trump’s trade war heats up (The Daily Beast)

The Result

Markets fell sharply after Trump escalated his attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (NYT / The Hill / AP)

Trump’s public approval rating lowest level since his return to the White House
  • Americans showed wary over Trump’s efforts to broaden his power, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday found.
  • Some 42% of respondents to the six-day poll approved of Trump’s performance as president, down from 43% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted three weeks earlier, and from 47% in the hours after his January 20 inauguration. (Reuters)