Friday, May 2, 2025

It's still springtime!

Some old and some new signs of spring!

Our Social Security checks keep us alive.

Two versions of King Charles III. No idea why I'm including him today.

And for those who care about the state of our US economy...

"United Parcel Service (UPS) has already announced that it is laying off about 20,000 employees and closing 73 of its buildings by the end of June. It says it anticipates lower volumes of shipping from its largest customer, Amazon, because of the tariffs...

The Constitution gave to Congress, not the president, the power to set tariffs. Trump is taking that power to himself by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to enact his sweeping tariffs. This law authorizes a president to regulate international trade during a national emergency. On February 1, Trump declared such a national emergency to impose tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, and on April 2 he again invoked it for his new blanket tariffs.

Congress could end Trump’s power over tariffs by cancelling the national emergency, a step Democrats were willing to take. But Republicans in the House used a procedural rule to make sure that Democrats could not cancel that emergency. A challenge to the president’s declaration of a national emergency must come to the floor for a vote within 18 days of the challenge. The House defanged that rule by declaring that each day for the rest of the congressional session will not “constitute a day for purposes…of the National Emergencies Act.”

In the Senate this evening, (April 30) Republican leaders killed a similar Democratic measure. Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) said: “Republicans are trying to give the administration…some space to figure out if they can get some good deals and awaiting the results of that.” Three Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky—voted with the Democrats.

Other observers are less hopeful of a good outcome for Trump’s tariffs. Washington Post legal and economic columnist Natasha Sarin said: “It’s just totally bonker bananas. Where are we going?! Are we near trading deals with India and Japan? That means less tariff revenue. But Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, says the tariffs are going to produce lots of revenue for deficit reduction. So that must mean they’re staying high? It’s a constant yo-yo that is impossible to plan around and is leading to investors being down on America, and with good reason.”

“Bonker bananas” is an apt description for an interview Trump did last night with Terry Moran of ABC News. In a discussion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the administration rendered to prison in El Salvador because of “administrative error,” Trump insisted that Abrego Garcia has “MS13” tattooed on his knuckles, for the gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. But the photo Trump held up for the cameras as “proof” of MS-13 tattoos was obviously photoshopped with letters and numbers apparently intended to be labels for Abrego Garcia’s actual tattoos.

As Moran repeatedly told Trump that the tattoos had been photoshopped, Trump got visibly angry, first suggesting that it was thanks to Trump that Moran got the interview, and complaining that “you’re not being very nice.” Trump then continued to insist that Abrego Garcia has MS13 tattooed on his knuckles and said that Moran’s refusal to agree to that “is why people no longer believe the news…. It’s such a disservice,” the president said. “Why don't you just say yes, he does[?]”

Trump couldn’t let it go. He brought it up again later in the interview, calling Moran “dishonest” for saying the tattoos were photoshopped.

Abrego Garcia has no criminal record, and experts on MS-13 say his tattoos are not tied to the gang.

That was not the only astonishing moment in the interview.

Although the Supreme Court unanimously agreed with a lower court that the administration must work to get Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador, the White House has insisted that it cannot comply because only El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, can release Abrego Garcia. But when Moran said to Trump he could pick up the phone and get him back, Trump replied “I could…. And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.” When Moran replied “But the court has ordered you to facilitate that,” Trump replied: “I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers who don't want to do this.”

“You’re the president!” Moran replied.

SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson April 30, 2025