02 U.S. Politics

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President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, announced new contract terminations on Tuesday, saving American taxpayers $2.6 billion in wasteful spending.

The agency highlighted presumably the most outrageous expenses, which total over $350,000 for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “plant maintenance” and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) social media programs.

Similarly, DOGE recently revealed that minor routine website maintenance for the VA cost $380,000 PER MONTH.

“That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week,” the department said.

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Mohsen Mahdawi holds a green card in the US but was raised in the West Bank until moving to the US in 2014.

Columbia University student activist Mohsen Mahdawi was summoned to a meeting with immigration officials in Vermont on Monday but was instead detained. Mahdawi holds a green card in the US but was raised in the West Bank until moving to the US in 2014.

At that meeting, ICE began the process of deporting Mahdawi to the West Bank. Mahdawi’s lawyer, per The Intercept, said that he was “unlawfully detained for no reason other than his Palestinian identity. He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Rubio made the comments in regard to the detainment and deportation of former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, saying that Rubio could determine if Khalil could legally remain in the US.

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A leader of the anti-Israel movement at Columbia University in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack on Israel has been detained by immigration authorities.

Mohsen Mahdawi was summoned to the Colchester, Vermont, office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Monday.

He expected to take a test to become a naturalized citizen. Instead, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him, according to the Intercept.

Mawdawi had been in the U.S. for 10 years and possesses a green card, according to the report.

www.lifesitenews.com
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The Conference of Bishops in France (CEF) has recorded the largest number of catechumens to be received or baptized into the Church since records began some twenty years ago. This year, 10,384 adults will be baptized during the Easter Vigil – a 45% increase on 2024.

Noticeable emerging patterns reveal younger generations and Muslims in France are leading the way – becoming interested in and converting to Catholicism at a quickening rate.

Official statistics corroborate with anecdotal reports to reveal the authenticity of growth in the French Church. On Ash Wednesday in 2025, an “unprecedented surge” in attendance at Mass across the country was reported in Catholic and secular media, led particularly by young adults.

“We shattered attendance records,” Fr Benoist de Sinety told Famille Chrétienne.

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A New Mexico man was charged with federal arson crimes for allegedly vandalizing a Tesla dealership and starting a fire at the state’s GOP headquarters in Albuquerque.

Jamison Wagner, 40, was charged with two counts of malicious damage or destruction of property by fire or explosives. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count if convicted.

“Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.”

Wagner allegedly vandalized the Tesla dealership in February with various phrases, including “Die Elon,” “Tesla Nazi Inc,” and “Die Tesla Nazi,” along with swastikas, according to court filings. He also allegedly started a fire affecting two Tesla vehicles, significantly damaging one of them.

Protests and attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships have surged in response to Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration.

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President Donald Trump has clarified that electronics are not exempt from his new tariffs, warning that “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook.’”

The warning comes as Trump redoubled his promise to end “unfair” trade policies once and for all.

The president confirmed that America’s trading partners are not “off the hook.”

The clarification came after his administration appeared to back away from targeting products like smartphones imported largely from China.

Trump’s reversal caused the stock market to rally Monday as confidence in tech stocks rebounded.

Companies like Apple are largely reliant on supply chains based in Asia, especially China.

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Good for Ohio. Other states should look at this strategy and try to replicate it.

The Enquirer reports:

Ohio private universities could lose scholarship money if they keep DEI programs

Ohio’s sweeping higher education law, Senate Bill 1, didn’t touch private universities. But a change added to the state budget would penalize private institutions that don’t ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Under the proposed change, students couldn’t use a popular scholarship at a private university unless that institution complies with portions of the higher education overhaul and accepts the top 10% of high school graduates.

Lawmakers are using the Governor’s Merit Scholarship, awarded to Ohio high school students in the top 5% of their class, as a carrot and a stick. Private universities aren’t required to make the changes in Senate Bill 1. But those that don’t risk losing scholarship students to other universities.

 

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There is a cancer in America’s military ranks, and it must be expunged before it’s too late. That cancer lies in uniformed service members’ widespread rejection of the uniquely American concept of civilian control of the military and disregard for the absolute necessity that America’s military officers remain apolitical in the face of the constitutional will of the electorate.

Recent events reveal this cancer, and they include the relief for cause of Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield after she reportedly refused to hang photos of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on her headquarters’ customary “Chain of Command” board and reportedly told her subordinates in a town hall that she would “wait [the Trump administration] out” the next four years. They also include the relief for cause of Col. Sussanah Meyers, commander of the U.S. Space Force’s base in Greenland, after she openly questioned (to all of her subordinates via email) Vice President J.D. Vance’s official pronouncements regarding the United States, Greenland, and Denmark.

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The most critical issue facing America is an illegal alien gang member being sent back to El Salvador. At least, that’s what Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) act as if the fate of democracy hangs on. I’m sure you, an American, can think of at least five things more important, up to and including it being WrestleMania week. What most likely happened is that a progressive NGO funded by progressive billionaires settled on the gang member to be what progressives have to care about this week, and CNN said, “Sure, we have no self-respect.”

It’s not surprising that CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, when allowed to speak for some reason, would ask about the Democrat talking point du jour. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien under a deportation order who had been staying in Maryland. He was removed and sent back to El Salvador. Democrats and CNN want him brought back to America. Collins asked Trump why he is being so mean.

Trump, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi, and Stephen Miller all took turns responding. They ran out of time for JD Vance to have his turn, so he shared his thoughts on Twitter.

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In more than 200 sanctuary city, county, and state jurisdictions across the United States, illegal aliens gather where they know they will be protected by local government authorities from deportation, no matter what crime they may commit. They hide in plain sight in any neighborhood: in pockets of ethnic communities among legal, law-abiding immigrants, and in upscale areas if they are working in the lucrative trafficking industrial complex.

A 40-year-old citizen of El Salvador was arrested after he sexually abused a child in Washington, D.C. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of the crime while he was in custody and launched a detainer, which tells city officials to notify ICE when he is released and transfer custody to ICE.

The detainer was ignored. The Salvadoran was released back into the D.C. community without telling ICE, and he reoffended, ICE Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Russell Hott told The Federalist.

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It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Trump administration is serious about this. The students who are causing trouble are being sought out and removed. That’s a good thing.

WTNH News reports:

13 people at UConn have had their visas revoked, university officials say

Twelve international students and one postgraduate at the University of Connecticut have had their visas terminated by the federal government, according to a university spokesperson.

According to the university’s review of Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records, the federal government has terminated the visas of 13 UConn students as of Monday.

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A far-left online project from the Smithsonian has disappeared, just weeks after President Donald Trump signed executive orders enforcing laws against racial discrimination. The project was previously exposed for pushing racist claims about white people.

Soon after taking office in January, Trump signed executive orders Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing. The orders banned discrimination in the name of “diversity” across the government and directed the attorney general to enforce anti-discrimination law accordingly.

Following these orders, the Smithsonian removed its main webpage on “Talking About Race” sometime between late February and early March, according to internet archives. The page now redirects to “teaching and learning” resources.

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Khalil’s lawyers have until April 23 to request ‘relief’ and halt deportation  

President Donald Trump’s administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the man who helped lead disruptive pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University over the last year, a U.S. immigration judge ruled Friday.

“The department has met its burden to establish removability by clear and convincing evidence,” Judge Jamee Comans said, according to The New York Times.

Khalil’s case “now moves on to what is known as the ‘relief stage,’ in which his lawyers will be able to argue for his right to stay in the country. If they lose, they can appeal, first to an immigration board and then to a federal court,” the outlet reported.

The judge gave Khalil’s legal team until April 23 to file a request for relief to prevent his deportation, Axios reported.

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Over the past two weeks, broadcast networks were utterly consumed by news of the Trump administration’s tariffs, to the degree that the topic took up more than a third of their flagship morning and evening newscasts’ total run time. Yet during that same time period, these networks spared barely any time at all to cover some of the positive economic news, such as the declining Consumer Price Index and a stronger-than-expected jobs report.

MRC analysts looked at all coverage of tariffs on ABC, CBS, and NBC’s flagship morning and evening news shows, from April 2 through April 11. During that time, these networks aired a jaw-dropping seven hours and two minutes of reporting about the Trump administration’s trade war, and all three surpassing two hours each. ABC led the pack with 148 minutes, followed by NBC with 144 minutes and CBS with 130 minutes dedicated to the topic.

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El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he would not return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to America.

“The question is preposterous,” said Bukele. “How can I smuggle a terrorist with the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

The administration admitted it made a mistake deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia belonged to the El Salvadoran MS-13 gang and entered America illegally. He lost his attempts to stay in America through the immigration and asylum system but received removal protection in 2019.

Abrego Garcia had to be removed…except to El Salvador because he feared for his life.

“We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country,” continued Bukele. “We just turned the murder capital of the world to the safest country of the western hemisphere and he wants to go back into the releasing criminal so we can go back to being the murdered capital of the world. That’s not going to happen.”

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“See, some of them, they don’t even want to go to work and some of them, they’ve taken a high risk. And, definitely, it’s not much to celebrate.”

This year’s Cinco de Mayo Parade in Chicago will not be happening. Organizers announced on Thursday that the event and its related celebrations on the city’s Southwest Side have been called off.

The reason, they say, is fear within the Mexican community due to immigration policies under President Donald Trump’s administration. Organizers said they chose to cancel the event to focus on safety rather than profits, ABC 7 reports.

“Our people are scared,” said Hector Escobar, President of the Casa Puebla & Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce. “See, some of them, they don’t even want to go to work and some of them, they’ve taken a high risk. And, definitely, it’s not much to celebrate.”

Since Trump took office, Chicago, which is a sanctuary city, has become a target for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). There has been an increase in deportation activity both in the city and nearby suburbs. That increase has created worry for local businesses in the Little Village neighborhood, where the parade normally begins on Cermak Road.

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Donald Trump is once again going to war with fake news as he continues to press legal actions against one of the most infamously biased mainstream media networks.

Trump, who originally sued CBS and its parent company Paramount last fall over a highly and deceptively edited Kamala Harris interview, which may have violated consumer protection law, is once again squaring up against CBS News, otherwise known as the Commie Broadcasting Service. Trump bashed CBS’s “60 Minutes” for segments critiquing his actions regarding Greenland and Ukraine. He slammed CBS as “a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be [held] responsible.”

The new “60 Minutes” segment featured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who, instead of trying to make peace for the sake of his people, is apparently trying to resurrect the Russian influence hoax about Trump and his allies and demanding that Trump side with him explicitly, as Joe Biden did, instead of neutrally working to broker a deal between Ukraine and Russia.

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White House Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller on Monday called the Justice Department attorney who was handling the Abrego Garcia deportation case a Democrat “saboteur” and accused him of falsely claiming Garcia was mistakenly removed.

On April 4, DOJ attorney, Erez Reuveni, told U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis that Garcia “should not have been removed,” and that he didn’t know why the alleged MS-13 member was even arrested. “I am also frustrated that I also have no answers for you on a lot of these questions,” he said.

After that court appearance, Reuveni was placed on leave. “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on April 5. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

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… While the focus of the Trump administration has been on seizing control of the Panama Canal from China, another port on the Pacific Ocean side of South America, CopiaPort-E in Chile, billed as the “Rotterdam of the Pacific,” demands President Trump’s attention. The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Chinese Communist Party had long planned for CopiaPort-E’s 8-kilometer-long natural breakwater peninsula to be the landing pad for China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) in South America. If the Trump administration acts fast, President Trump can block the final step in China’s BRI expansion plans in South America before China finalizes the deal.

A group of three holding companies and one operating company (three Chilean and one Panama organized) own approximately 850 square miles (220,000) hectares of real estate on which the port will be developed, including all rights to intellectual property, programs, contracts, use and regulatory licenses, and trade secrets. St. Matthew Assurance Ltd., a part of the Cotswold Group of Companies, has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chinese Representatives to purchase equity and the rights to develop the CopiaPort-E Super Port project. St. Matthew Assurance Company, the ultimate owner, is an insurance company owned, organized, and operating under the laws of the Chiricahua Apache (CAMB) Nation and is benefiting from the CAMB Nation’s sovereign Indigenous status and protections provided by the U.S. domestic and international law, including the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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International travel to the United States fell 12% in March compared to rates from March 2024, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office.

From January to March, 7.1 million visitors entered the U.S. from abroad, a 3.3% decline from the first three months of 2024. This marks the sharpest decrease in travel since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. tourism industry expected the year to be positive regarding travelers from abroad visiting the U.S. In 2024, the number of international visitors to the U.S. rose, with some forecasts predicting 2025 would reach pre-COVID levels.

Tourism Economics, a travel forecasting company, originally anticipated the U.S. would have nearly 9% more international arrivals this year but revised its annual outlook last week to a 9.4% decline.

But travel from overseas has nosedived for tourists upset by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and reports of dozens of tourists being arrested at the border.

Wagner College Appears To Completely Remove Transgender Athlete From Official Website, Erases All History– dailycaller.com
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Common sense is winning!

Redmond Sullivan, a transgender (biological male) athlete who used to fence for Wagner College, is no longer a part of the women’s team. OutKick was the first to learn about the development.

It’s not known if Wagner kicked Sullivan off the team or if the trans athlete left the program. With that being said though, a statement from the college, as well as their actions, show that it was most likely the former.

“We are in full compliance with NCAA and NEC [Northeast Conference] rules and regulations,” said a spokesperson for Wagner College to OutKick. “The fencer is not a member of our fencing team.”

The last time that Sullivan competed for Wagner College in women’s fencing was Dec. 1 in Staten Island, New York for the Seahawk Invitational. Here in 2025, the fencer hasn’t competed at all, most likely because of President Donald Trump’s executive order and the NCAA’s policy change on transgenders.

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Taylor Starling is a 16-year-old high school runner who attends Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California. Despite her rigorous training and dedication, last October, Starling lost her spot on the varsity cross-country team to a transgender athlete — a biological male posing as a female.

While Starling eventually regained her spot on the team by outperforming her male competitor, the controversy is still burning strong.

Shortly following her displacement, Starling, alongside another teammate, filed a federal lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District in November 2024, alleging violations of Title IX.

The scandal escalated when Starling and another teammate wore “Save Girls’ Sports” T-shirts to practice, which reportedly resulted in school officials comparing the slogan to swastikas and claiming the girls created a hostile environment. Apparently the athletic director even required that they remove their shirts or face discipline.

Colleges Reinstate Standardized Testing Requirements– www.dailysignal.com
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In the name of “equity,” many competitive colleges had stopped using entrance exams in their application process.

Now, the pendulum has swung: Realizing that standardized tests actually do help school officials evaluate applications, administrators at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Brown, MIT, and more have reinstated use of the SAT and ACT.

This is a good course correction and a welcome return to a time when student merit and effort mattered.

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Nvidia on Monday announced it would design and build factories to produce NVIDIA AI supercomputers entirely in the United States.

“Together with leading manufacturing partners, the company has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test NVIDIA Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas,” Nvidia announced.

Yahoo Finance reports:

As part of this $500 billion commitment, Nvidia said it is building two new supercomputer manufacturing plants in Texas in partnership with contract manufacturers Foxconn (2354.TW) and Wistron (3231.TW).

Nvidia expects to mass-produce supercomputers at those sites in 12 to 15 months. The chipmaker said its latest Blackwell AI chips are already in production at TSMC’s (TSM) plant in Phoenix.

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A top boss in America’s largest auto union praised President Donald Trump for sticking to his guns amid a high-stakes international tariff war that he promises will bring millions of manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

Despite endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris, the United Auto Workers have come solidly around to Trump since he began instituting sharp tariffs on other countries, which for decades have benefited from U.S. companies shifting their manufacturing and production lines overseas. The change “will bring work back” to his union members, UAW president Shawn Fain told a stunned MSNBC host on Monday.

“Now, we’ve been very clear,” Fain said. “We do believe, and we know, when it comes to auto, when it comes to heavy truck, and agricultural implementation, we know that tariffs will influence these companies to do the right thing and reinvest in this country and reinvest in factories in this country.”

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Five former prosecutors who worked on the effort to railroad those involved in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol Building have demanded an investigation into President Donald Trump’s pick to become Washington, DC’s new top prosecutor.

Ed Martin has won his share of controversy over some of the moves he made while serving as interim US attorney for DC, especially related to the J6 prosecutions. CNN reported that the former prosecutors are calling on the disciplinary office for DC attorneys to launch an investigation into Martin.

Martin, who has been serving in the post on an interim basis since Trump returned to the White House, is a divisive pick for the job. After stepping into the position, he used his new powers to dismiss January 6 Capitol riot cases, fire prosecutors who were involved in the investigations, go after his and Trump’s political adversaries, and launch internal reviews in an attempt to find misconduct within the office.

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Activist Charlotte Clymer joined MSNBC’s Katie Phang “to discuss the Trump administration’s latest attack on transgender Americans and how Democrats can fight back,” and “the science” was definitely not on his side.

According to Mediaite:

Clymer, a former Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, told host Katie Phang that Democrats should be embracing trans and gender issues head-on because they can easily win and have science on their side.

Phang began with the recent lawsuit filed by Maine’s Attorney General challenging the executive order from President Donald Trump that targets transgender athletes participating in women’s sports and punishes schools that don’t change their policies.

“It’s very easy to fight back on trans issues. The science is on our side,” Clymer added. “Every credible medical organization has come out and endorsed gender-affirming care and said that the trans military ban is ridiculous and unnecessary… But the more we don’t fight back, the more Republicans are going to engage in bad faith and run up a score on Democrats.”

Teen Kills Parents As Part Of Twisted Assassination Plot Against Trump– www.louderwithcrowder.com
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In one of the most twisted, deranged, and bizarre plots against Trump’s life, 17-year-old Nikita Casap is being accused of murdering his parents in his plan to assassinate President Trump and run away to Ukraine.

According to CBS:

A Wisconsin teenager charged in the deaths of his parents faces wider allegations that he killed them to “obtain the financial means” to assassinate President Trump and overthrow the government, according to a recently unsealed federal warrant. Additionally, the warrant accuses the teen of aligning himself with racist, extremist neo-Nazi ideology and calling for violence as a way to “save the white race.”

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President Donald Trump has reached a deal with five law firms that were accused of illegal hiring practices and political discrimination.

The settlement will allow them to avoid punishing executive orders in exchange for hundreds of millions in free legal services.

The deal represents a massive win for Trump.

The president leveraged White House sanctions, which has sent dozens of massive law firms scrambling to kiss the ring and cut deals with the Trump administration.

Law firms Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and Latham & Watkins LLP have all agreed to provide $125 million each in free legal work.

The legal services will be used for causes ranging from representing veterans to fighting anti-Semitism.