The Good fighting The Ugly

Elite US Universities form private collective to resist Trump administration

  • Leaders of some of the nation’s most prestigious universities have assembled a private collective to counter the Trump administration’s attacks on research funding and academic independence across higher education, according to people familiar with the effort.
    The informal group currently includes about 10 schools, including Ivies and leading private research universities, mostly in blue states. Strategy discussions gained momentum after the administration’s recent list of demands for sweeping cultural change at Harvard, viewed by many universities as an assault on independence.
    The collective, as some are calling it, represents a separate, quiet and potentially more potent effort than recent public resolutions from university-aligned groups. (WSJ)

Call for help is coming from within the USA

The case for boycotting the United States

  • If you are considering a trip to the US, please reconsider. Why reward Donald Trump’s America with your tourist dollars? (Robert Reich, The Guardian)

The Ugly

CEO’s cut spending everywhere they can as Trump’s tariff uncertainty swirls

  • CEOs are pausing travel, delaying construction projects and slowing hiring in response to tariffs and cloudy economic forecasts; a bid to ‘control the controllables’ (WSJ)

Trump disdains conservatism. His governing philosophy is absolute power

  • “We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose, and very much expose, their egregious crimes and severe misconduct,” he pledged. “It’s going to be legendary.” (The Guardian)

MTG says Catholic Bishops are ‘controlled by Satan’ (WRDW)

Trump promised a markets boom. 100 days in, stocks have only seen damage

  • The S&P 500 Index is down about 8% since his inauguration and on track for its worst run during a president’s first 100 days since Gerald Ford.  (Japan Times)

American retailers are growing worried that Trump’s trade war and increased volatility will lead to empty shelves, higher prices and store closures as Chinese imports screech to a halt. (Axios)

Trump golf club to host speaker who claims bleach can cure cancer and Covid

  • Donald Trump’s private golf resort in South Florida will next week host one of the world’s leading purveyors of chlorine dioxide, a potentially life-threatening form of industrial bleach that is claimed without evidence to be a cure for cancer, Covid and autism. Andreas Kalcker is among 50 listed speakers at the “Truth Seekers Conference”, a two-day event opening on Thursday at the US president’s resort, Trump National Doral Miami. The event features several anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists who have been brought together by the far-right commentator Charlie Ward. (The Guardian)

The numbers aren’t great » Trump’s job rating drops

  • With Trump’s second term approaching its 100-day mark, 40% of Americans approve of how he’s handling the job – a decline of 7 percentage points from February.
  • 59% of Americans disapprove of the administration’s tariff increases, while 39% approve.
  • 55% disapprove of the cuts the administration is making to federal departments and agencies, while 44% approve. (Pew Research)

Is Trump finally waking up to what most have known for years? » Trump say’s he thinks Putin may just be ‘tapping me along’ (EuroNews / BBC / The Daily Beast / EA World View / Business Insider)

“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and town over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along.”