• Tariffs take effect: The second phase of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff wave took effect at 12:01 a.m. this morning. These reciprocal tariffs were “tailored” for 86 individual countries and are on top of the 10% across-the-board tariffs that took effect over the weekend. Yesterday, Trump sought to quell growing Republican concerns by asserting that the impact of these tariffs is “going to be legendary.” He also hinted at raising tariffs against pharmaceutical drug imports. Furthermore, China failed to rescind its 34% retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods, so Trump followed through on hitting back with a 104% tariff on all Chinese imports. Like clockwork, Beijing hit back, raising 84% retaliatory tariffs against U.S. imports. China has promised to “fight to the end” in this escalating trade war. The European Union is also fighting back.

• DHS undoes “legal” Biden invasion: The CBP One app first came to the attention of many Americans when JD Vance explained during last year’s VP debate how it was being used to allow a border invasion. Under the Trump/Vance administration and Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, that invasion is being walked back. Approximately 985,000 migrants are having their legal status revoked. Migrants are receiving emails informing them of the change in their status and instructing them to use the very same app, now called CBP Home, to facilitate their self-deportation. Migrants who arrived on programs created to aid Ukrainian refugees or Afghani allies of the American regime are unaffected by these terminations. DHS is providing some encouragement in the form of a $998/day fine for every day these migrants remain in the U.S. past their final deportation order.

• SCOTUS says fired probationary employees stay fired: On Tuesday, the Trump administration got another judicial win, as the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s order directing the administration to rehire 16,000 federal probationary workers the admin had fired. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that the emergency action by a district judge was based upon requests by third-party organizations that have no legal standing in the case and therefore was out of bounds. The Court effectively agreed with the Trump administration that upholding the district judge’s order would let “third parties hijack the employment relationship between the federal government and its workforce.” This ruling does not address other plaintiffs in the case, including labor unions and the State of Washington. The question of whether the Trump administration can fire federal workers en masse has yet to be addressed by the justices.

• Fake voter rolls: Since 2019, roughly five million voters have been removed from state voter rolls. According to Judicial Watch, “Analysis and use of voter registration lists has led to lawsuits and legal actions under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that have resulted in the removal of five million names from voter rolls in nearly a dozen states and localities.” Among the five million removed were 918,139 from New York City in just the last two years. Meanwhile, Kentucky has removed 735,000 ineligible voters from its roll, while Los Angeles County has removed 1.2 million ineligible voters in compliance with a settlement in a federal lawsuit raised by Judicial Watch in 2017. The result was that LA County moved to the right by five points between 2020 and 2024.

• Work authorization and Social Security Numbers for illegals: Remember the Biden Border Invasion? Do you recall how long it took for Democrats to admit it was happening? Well, thankfully, Trump won the election in November, and he’s tasked DOGE with finding the receipts of that invasion. The results are shocking: Roughly 270,000 Social Security Numbers were issued to noncitizens in 2021, 590K in 2022, 964K in 2023, and a whopping 2,095,247 in 2024. For those who aren’t math whizzes, that adds up to over 3.9 million noncitizens. Also detailed in DOGE’s report are 1.3 million illegals on Medicare, millions with driver’s licenses, some registered to vote, and some illegals who voted.

• Elbridge Colby confirmed at DOD in bipartisan Senate vote: Pete Hegseth’s team at the Department of Defense was rounded out today when Elbridge Colby’s nomination for undersecretary of defense for policy was confirmed in a bipartisan vote of 54-45. The undersecretary is the Pentagon’s No. 3 spot after the secretary and deputy secretary. Vice President JD Vance excoriated outgoing Senator Mitch McConnell as the only “No” vote from the Republican side of the aisle, calling it “one of the great acts of political pettiness.” The controversy around Colby, if there is one, seems to revolve around his stance on America’s geopolitical strategy. Colby believes that dividing focus on European, Middle East, and Far East defense risks weakening our deterrence toward Beijing. China is our chief geopolitical foe, and now we have an undersecretary who takes that threat seriously.

• Associated Press convinces a judge: A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Associated Press, restoring access for the Leftmedia outlet to the Oval Office and Air Force One. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden found that the White House’s denial of AP reporters to key presidential events was due to “their viewpoints” and was therefore in violation of First Amendment protections of freedom of the press. At issue was the AP’s refusal to refer to the Gulf of America as such after Donald Trump renamed it. This ruling does not mandate that any journalist “be given access to the president or nonpublic government spaces,” McFadden noted. “It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer.” Furthermore, the White House can bar AP reporters from events if all reporters are barred from access.

• Pentagon offers back pay to troops ousted over COVID vaccine: Those service members ousted from our military over their refusal to accept an experimental vaccine are seeing some justice from the Trump administration. Around 8,700 ex-service members are being offered back pay and their careers back. These troops will have a year to decide whether to rejoin, followed by a few months of administrative processes to ensure they still meet military medical standards. Back pay is not offered for those who voluntarily left the military rather than take the vaccine. Americans should be free to choose their own medical care. Implementing a mandate on an experimental vaccine was foolish from the start.

Headlines

• Mike Johnson seeks to quell conservatives’ mutiny against budget plan (Daily Signal)

• Trump signs four executive orders promoting coal industry (Center Square)

• Acting IRS chief to step down after immigration deal with DHS (Fox News)

• Supreme Court permits Education Department to freeze DEI teacher grants (National Review)

• Trump admin freezes $1B in federal funding to Cornell, $790M to Northwestern (NY Post)

• Trump would-be assassin tried to buy a rocket-propelled grenade from Ukraine (Daily Wire)

• Biden admin concealed congressionally mandated report on earliest suspected American COVID cases (Washington Free Beacon)

• Oil prices hit a four-year low (Just the News)

• Gallup poll finds EV interest dips in last two years while hybrids gain (Consumer Affairs)

• British mother jailed for two years because of a tweet she deleted after four hours (Hot Air)

• Zelensky claims troops captured Chinese nationals fighting for Russia (Washington Examiner)

• Satire: Protesters demand government waste (Babylon Bee)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here.