The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold
U.S. economy shrinks: For the first time since 2022, the U.S. economy has shrunk. First-quarter numbers show a decrease in GDP of 0.3%, reversing the 2.4% rise from the fourth quarter of 2024. The drop was unexpected, as some economists anticipated a 0.4% increase. They argue that the biggest culprit is uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s tariffs. It’s “Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the president responded on Truth Social. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”
Judge Dugan suspended: Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is learning the hard way that blatantly defying the law will get one in trouble quickly. Apparently upset by the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Dugan’s actions to protect a criminal alien from detention by federal officials not only got her arrested but may end her career as a judge. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan. The court ordered Dugan “temporarily prohibited from exercising the powers of a circuit court judge in the state of Wisconsin, effective the date of this order and until further order of the court.” This decision is telling because Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has a 4-3 liberal majority, and it appears even they aren’t comfortable with Dugan’s lawless actions.
Trump’s 100-day rally: To celebrate the 100-day mark of his second term, Donald Trump held a rally on Tuesday in Michigan, where he laid out his actions and successes. “We’ve accomplished more in three months than most administrations accomplish in four years or even eight years — and we’re just getting started, believe me,” Trump told the crowd. He then called on Congress to pass a “big, beautiful” tax bill that includes his plan to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime. Trump also highlighted his securing of the border, saying he was delivering on “mass deportation.” He pointed to his actions to eliminate DEI in the federal government and to protect kids from the “transgender” agenda. “Trillions of dollars are now pouring into the United States because of common sense,” Trump stated with regard to his trade policies.
Trump runs interview gauntlet: The U.S. president is one of the biggest celebrities on earth, but Donald Trump doesn’t just embrace the spotlight; he revels in it. In just over a week, he has done three high-profile interviews with “fake news” organizations. TIME, The Atlantic, and ABC News are openly hostile to the Trump administration, but they got backstage passes to tour the White House and generous amounts of time for the interviews. Trump also recently met with anti-woke lefty Bill Maher. These interviews with hard-hitting questions and contentious moments are a studied contrast to the Biden administration’s attempt to keep the 46th president from appearing in public more than once a week. Getting a close look at the mind of the most powerful man in the world is fascinating; perhaps the adversarial approach is the best way to do that.
Senate to vote to retake tariff authority: Congress doesn’t work the way that it should. It has ceded power to the executive branch for decades, usually by delegating lawmaking authority to unelected agencies. Going the other direction, the Senate is expected to vote as soon as today to end the state of “national emergency” that Trump claims gives him the power to decide U.S. tariff policy unilaterally. The votes may be there to pass the resolution in the Senate, but the House has no plan to take up the measure. In the unlikely event this resolution passes in both chambers, Trump promises a veto that will not be overridden. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is among the few Republicans expected to vote for the measure. Without movement in the House or the votes to override a veto, this is a symbolic gesture.
David Hogg sparks Democrat infighting: David Hogg was elected the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee two months ago. Shortly thereafter, the 25-year-old promised to primary “ineffective” House Democrats to replace them with younger, more responsive representatives. This caused more blowback than he might’ve expected. DNC Chair Ken Martin introduced a proposal last week to keep DNC officials from participating in primaries. More recently, Kalyn Free, Hogg’s opponent in the race for vice chair, is filing a complaint that the election unfairly discriminated against women by “failing to distinguish between gender categories.” The DNC will meet virtually on May 12 to consider the complaint. Republicans may be unsure who to root for in this miniature Democrat civil war, so it’s best to get the popcorn and enjoy the show.
Trump’s deportation averages 650 illegals a day: So far, 66,463 illegal immigrants have been arrested and 65,682 removed. Those are the stats for the first 100 days of Trump’s second term in office. Border crossings have fallen to almost nothing, meaning deportees stay deported. ICE says 75% of arrestees’ criminal records are in keeping with Trump’s priority of deporting the most dangerous illegals first. More than 2,200 were members of Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or other gangs, while 1,329 were accused or convicted of sex offenses, and another 498 were accused or convicted of murder. These deportations are undoubtedly just the beginning and a good start. Still, if Trump wants to deport the millions who crossed Biden’s open border, the average will need to climb quickly; 650 deportations a day only add up to about one million across four years.
Florida to ban “chemtrails”: Florida will soon join Tennessee in banning so-called “chemtrails.” The Sunshine State’s Republican legislature isn’t interested in the ridiculous mind-control conspiracy but intends to prohibit geoengineering experiments that aim to combat climate change. The bill, which passed the state Senate, prohibits the “injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of a chemical, a chemical compound, a substance or apparatus into the atmosphere within the borders of Florida for the express purposes of affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.” Gov. Ron DeSantis explained, “People have a lot of kooky ideas that they can … put things in the atmosphere to block the sun and save us from climate change. We’re not playing that game in Florida.” The United Kingdom just approved a geoengineering plan to spew sulfur dioxide, a literal pollutant, into the atmosphere in the hopes of generating more clouds to dim the sun.
David Horowitz, RIP: David Horowitz, conservative advocate and founder of the Freedom Center think tank, has died at the age of 86 after a long battle with cancer. Horowitz was a sharp and tenacious advocate for freedom. In his younger days, Horowitz was a Marxist before having an epiphany and becoming a stalwart defender of America and Liberty. Of his passing, the editors of FrontPage Magazine, which David founded, wrote: “David’s legacy is vast and the number of people that he inspired, mentored, and impacted is incalculable. That we live in a world today where there is a fighting chance of defeating the Leftist utopians who would enslave us is due in no small measure to the rare courage and unflagging passion that exemplified David’s work these past 40 years.” Freedom Center’s Robert Spencer noted, “If free people prevail in this great struggle in which we are now engaged, and if an honest history of our turbulent age is someday written, David Horowitz will stand as one of those who shone forth most brightly when the darkness seemed all-pervasive and invincible.”
Headlines
David Perdue confirmed as Trump’s top China diplomat (Fox News)
Authors of National Climate Assessment dismissed by Trump administration (Washington Examiner)
Ukraine ready to sign landmark minerals deal (NY Post)
China quietly exempts key U.S. goods from tariffs (Newsweek)
ISIS suspect arrested in New Orleans Bourbon Street terror attack that killed 14 (Fox News)
Male sweeps women’s events at U.S. Masters Swim National Championships (Daily Wire)
Fifty years after Vietnam, our troops remain demoralized by defeat (The Federalist)
Satire: Nine changes new prime minister will bring to Canada (Babylon Bee)
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