Original Publish Date » April 9 , 2025
Last Updated » 2 weeks

Americans and everyone visiting the US should all be very, very afraid

  • Of all the lawless acts by the Trump administration in its first two and a half months, none are more frightening than its dumping of human beings who have not had their day in court into an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador — and then contending that no federal court has the authority to right these brazen wrongs.
  • In an astounding brief filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, the solicitor general of the United States argued that even when the government concedes that it has mistakenly deported someone to El Salvador and had him imprisoned there, the federal courts are powerless to do anything about it.
  • There would be nothing to stop the government from jailing its critics in another country and then claiming, as it is now, that the courts have no jurisdiction to remedy the situation. Armed with this power, the government would know that Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the F.B.I. or any federal law enforcement agency could apprehend anyone, ignore the requirements for due process and ship them to El Salvador or any country that would take them.
  • NY Times 

About 90% of the people deported to El Salvador had no criminal record (Bloomberg)

Trump’s Escalating Trade War

Trump orders 90-day pause on his “reciprocal” tariffs for most countries, except for China

  • Hours prior, he had posted online urging investors to “BE COOL” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
  • The “baseline” tariff rate of 10% will remain, but not added for Canada
  • China’s tariffs are being increased — from 104% to 125% — due to a “lack of respect.”
  • Auto tariffs from Canada and Mexico remain, but no new tariffs on Canada today
  • Despite the 90-day tariff pause, Goldman Sachs warns there is still a 45% chance of a US recession
  • Lutnick threatens Trump will respond if Canada doesn’t lift its counter-tariffs
  • CBC / Politico / NPR / Axios
The Canadian government’s retaliatory tariffs on vehicles imported from the US took effect today
  • “Canada continues to respond forcefully to all unwarranted and unreasonable tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Canadian products,” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement. “The government is firmly committed to getting these U.S. tariffs removed as soon as possible, and will protect Canada’s workers, businesses, economy and industry.”
  • Canada is the largest export market for US-made cars, about 1.2 million vehicles are imported from the US every year
  • Globe and Mail
EU member states agree first wave of retaliatory tariffs
  • EU member states approved on Wednesday 25% tariffs on a wide range of US products, including almonds, orange juice, poultry, soybeans, steel and aluminum, tobacco and yachts, in retaliation against 25% tariffs imposed by the US on imports of steel and aluminum from the bloc.
  • In a statement, the European Commission said the tariffs would start being collected on April 15, and were in response to the 25% import taxes President Trump imposed on all steel and aluminum, which came into force in mid-March
  • Euronews / Politico / Video » BBC / Reuters
China fires back with fresh 50% tariff in stern rebuke to Trump’s escalation
  • Matching blows with DC, Beijing’s tariff hike brings the accumulative tariff total to 84% on goods from US
  • Beijing white paper outlines China’s trade stance before retaliatory strike on US (SCMP)
    • Trump tariffs of 104% went into effect Wednesday on Chinese exports to the US
  • AP / SCMP / BBC / CNBC

A US-made iPhone would cost customers C$5,000 (US$3500) (France 24)

Trump’s tariff wall was never about fairness or reciprocity (Ian Bremmer)

  • Global tariffs on all goods imported to the US confirm Trump is committed to ‘liberating’ the US from the very system that made it prosperous

Trump vows “major” tariffs on imported medicines – raising fears of an increase in costs for Americans (BBC)

The Result of Trump’s Trade War » Global Recession

“I don’t know how we would avoid it,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CBC News’s Power & Politics on Monday. “This is a pretty dark scenario, both for the U.S. and, by extension, Canada and the rest of the world.“

  • In the wake of Trump announcing sweeping global tariffs last week, the brokerage firm J.P. Morgan put the chances of a global recession at 60%, up from 40% at the end of March. (CBC)

Delta Air Lines confirms Trump’s tariffs are hurting bookings (Business Insider / The Daily Beast)

  • Delta is ditching plans to grow flight capacity in the second half of 2025 as a result

Also

The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism sent out a travel advisory, telling its citizens to exercise caution and weigh the risks of travelling to the US as tourists, pointing to  “security concerns in America.”

  • This comes just a few days after Canada and other western nations updated their travel advisory for the US with similar warnings

Eight people in South Sudan, including five children, died on a three-hour walk to seek medical treatment for cholera after US aid cuts forced local health services to close, the UK-based charity Save the Children said (Reuters)

That’s Mature » Senior Trump aides refuse to engage with reporters when the journalists list identifying pronouns in their email signatures (NYT)

US is now monitoring immigrants’ social media for antisemitism (NPR)

Pete Hegseth senior adviser is pushing for Pentagon to cut ties with Scouting America (NBC)