The Ugly

United Airlines is canceling 35 daily round-trip flights from Newark, N.J., starting this weekend after a group of air-traffic controllers took leave following equipment outages (WSJ)

“Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” Chief Executive Scott Kirby said in a message posted on United’s website.

Technology that controllers rely on to manage traffic has failed several times in the past few days. That resulted in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delays and cancellations, and thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans.

The great deliverable of Trump’s first 100 days? Revenge. (Semafor)

Revenge has been the great deliverable of the president’s first 100 days in office. No modern president had worked so quickly to knock out the foundations from left-wing institutions, which the influencers appreciated. A year after he said he’d be “too busy for retribution,” at a time when his campaign worried that voters didn’t want him to focus on retribution, he had done plenty. The State Department was even combing its records for information on some Trump foes.

This has terrified big and small “L” liberals. It’s also been fairly easy, exercising powers that don’t need congressional approval and other presidents were reluctant to use. Trump can credibly tell supporters, like he did in Michigan this week, that he kept his promises.

Trump’s Worldwide Trade and Tariff War

As of Saturday, May 3rd, most auto part imports into the US will come with a 25% import tax (CNN)

More than 50% of the content of cars assembled in American auto plants is imported, according to the government’s own estimates. But the tariffs won’t apply equally to all those imports.

For example, parts from Canadian or Mexican suppliers who pay their workers $16 or more an hour are deemed “compliant” with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal negotiated during the first Trump administration. That means most Canadian parts are exempt from tariffs, but relatively few Mexican parts.

(NYT)

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America

The White House posted an AI-generated photo of President Donald Trump, who was depicted as the pope of the Roman Catholic Church (CNBC)

The image — which first appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account — was posted days before Catholic cardinals are set to begin a conclave to elect the next pope.

The New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops, strongly condemned the post.

“There is nothing clever or funny about this image,” said in a post on X.

“We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter,” the group said.

“Do not mock us.”

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, an outspoken Trump critic, criticized the post and said it “affirms how unserious and incapable [Trump] is.”