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2:00 PM ET, April 12, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
CSMS # 64724565 - UPDATED GUIDANCE - Reciprocal Tariff Exclusion for Specified Products; April 5, 2025 Effective Date  —  The purpose of this message is to provide further guidance on the additional duties due on imported merchandise which were imposed by Executive Order 14257, issued April 2 …
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Apple, Nvidia Score Relief From US Tariffs With Exemptions  —  President Donald Trump's administration exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs, representing a major reprieve for global technology manufacturers including Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp. even if it proves a temporary one.
Erin Doherty / CNBC:
Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from new tariffs … Smartphones and computers will be exempted from President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, according to new guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  —  The guidance comes after Trump earlier this month imposed 125% tariffs …
Financial Times:
Trump excludes smartphones from reciprocal tariffs  —  Tech including routers and selected computers get reprieve after a week of turbulence in US markets  —  The Trump administration has excluded smartphones from its steep “reciprocal” tariffs as it battles to calm global markets by tempering …
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Trump Administration Live Updates: New Rule Exempts Smartphones and Computers From Most Tariffs  —  Where Things Stand  — Smartphone reprieve: The Trump administration published a rule late Friday night that appears to exempt many electronic parts and devices from most of the president's punishing tariffs …
Discussion: Mostly signs
Associated Press:
Trump administration says it will exclude some electronics from reciprocal tariffs  —  The Trump administration late Friday said they would exclude electronics like smartphones and laptops from reciprocal tariffs, a move that could help keep the prices down for popular consumer electronics that aren't usually made in the U.S.
Washington Post:
Trump administration overrode Social Security staff to list immigrants as dead  —  A senior executive who objected was marched out of his office and put on leave, while earlier warnings about the agency's deaths database were ignored.  —  Just now  —  Two days after the Social Security …
Discussion: USA Today and Reuters
RELATED:
Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:   Senior Social Security official removed by security after pointing out illegal plans: WaPo
Rolling Stone:
Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador  —  Trump officials are talking internally about denaturalizing American citizens — and potentially sending some to El Salvador  —  Donald Trump and his White House have moved to deport green-card holders for espousing pro-Palestinian views …
Discussion: Twitchy and New Republic
RELATED:
Erkki Forster / The Daily Beast:
Staffers Walk Out of RFK Jr.'s Slur-Ridden Speech About Deep State  —  LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS  —  In Kennedy's bonkers speech to FDA employees on Friday, he accused agency employees of being shills for the industries they regulate.  —  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stunned FDA staff Friday …
Discussion: Fox News, Mediaite, Politico and Raw Story
RELATED:
Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:
HHS officials did not know how many people have been fired
Discussion: Politico
Deborah Brunswick / CNN:
‘Why are high fertility people always so weird?’:  A weekend with the pronatalists  —  CNN's Meena Duerson travels to Austin to join roughly 200 “pronatalists” for the second-ever Natal Conference, an event devoted to discussing the world's declining birth rates and potential solutions.
Emily Badger / New York Times:
Musk's Latest Fraud Finding Isn't What It Seems  —  His team found cases of seemingly fake people receiving unemployment benefits.  But that fake data exists for a reason.  —  Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency announced this week that they had found something especially startling …
Discussion: Boston Herald
Myah Ward / Politico:
Trump grants military control over strip of federal land along US southern border  —  It marks an escalation in the president's use of the military to facilitate his sweeping immigration agenda.  —  A 60-foot wide strip of land along three southwestern border states will be placed under …
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions
T. Christian Miller / ProPublica:
“Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay”  —  Uncovered: How the Insurance Industry Denies Coverage to Patients  — Shortchanged: Blue Cross Louisiana OK'd mastectomies and breast reconstructions for women with cancer but refused to pay a hospital's full bills.  For some claims, it paid nothing.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Wants to Be Impeached Again  —  It's already in the cards thanks to his ill-founded trade war, no matter how that war plays out.  —  This week the system worked.  Donald Trump blinked.  The unwinding is still just beginning.  It will be painful and tumultuous.
Discussion: Raw Story
Politico:
USDA's $1B bird flu plan uses money intended for schools, food banks  —  The move tees up a major political fight over the Trump administration's priorities — and the small pot of money USDA has to spread around.  —  Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' $1 billion plan for fighting bird flu …
Discussion: Carolina Journal
Luke Harding / The Guardian:
US ‘demands control’ from Ukraine of key pipeline carrying Russian gas  —  Senior Kyiv economist describes latest postion of Trump administration in talks as ‘colonial-type’ bullying  —  The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe …
Adam Goldman / New York Times:
F.B.I. Suspends Bureau Employee on Patel's So-Called Enemies List  —  The employee was a longtime counterintelligence analyst who had worked on the F.B.I.'s investigation examining Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.  —  The F.B.I. has suspended an analyst on Kash Patel's …
Discussion: Townhall and Raw Story
David Smith / The Guardian:
‘Completely out of touch’: golf and dinners for ‘king’ Trump as economy melts down  —  Casual attitude as markets fall suggests man detached from anxieties of ordinary voters - and surrounded by yes men  —  After lighting a fuse under global financial markets, Donald Trump stepped back - all the way to a Florida golf course.
Discussion: Raw Story
Washington Post:
DOGE takes over federal grants website, wresting control of billions  —  A DOGE engineer removed users' access to grants.gov, threatening to further slow the process of awarding thousands of federal grants per year.  —  U.S. DOGE Service employees have inserted themselves …
Matthew Goldstein / New York Times:
Five More Big Law Firms Reach Deals With Trump  —  Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft agreed to do free legal work on causes the White House supports.  —  Five more prominent law firms facing potential punitive action …
RELATED:
Elena Moore / NPR:
For some students who protested war in Gaza, fear and silence is a new campus reality  —  Last spring, Cornell University was home to a student encampment, where dozens slept in tents on the quad to protest Israel's war in Gaza.  The demonstration lasted more than two weeks.
Juliana Kim / NPR:
Federal judge orders USDA to unfreeze funds to Maine  —  A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funding that was allocated to Maine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — funds that had been withheld following President Trump's clash with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue of transgender athletes.
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
Bessent Takes Tricky Center Stage as Trade Wars Roil U.S. Economy  —  The Treasury secretary received counsel and criticism from some of his predecessors over President Trump's policies.  —  The traditional gathering of former Treasury secretaries to welcome a newly minted one into the fold …
Eric Berger / The Guardian:
‘A new golden age’: how rightwing media stuck by Trump as global markets collapsed  —  Trump's tariffs were sometimes played down, sometimes cheered but rarely seriously questioned by the right  —  While Donald Trump recently instituted and paused hefty tariffs, sparking a trade war and chaos …
Kevin M. Levin / Civil War Memory:
Trump Cuts Funds for Boston's Museum of African American History  —  When people ask me to take them to the most important historic site in Boston, I take them to the Museum of African American History (MAAH) on Beacon Hill.  The museum, located in Smith Court along Joy Street …
Discussion: Vanity Fair
Emily Ngo / Politico:
Canadians freeze visits to the US over Trump  —  Tourism from the north tanks amid annexation talk, tariff whiplash and border stops.  —  NEW YORK — Marketers for top U.S. destinations are trumpeting a reminder to Canadians amid a dive in tourism: You're welcome here regardless of who's president.
Jonathan Mahler / New York Times:
How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin's Russia … In 1989, shortly before the fall of communism, Boris Yeltsin — the reformer who would soon become the first freely elected president of post-Soviet Russia — visited a supermarket in Houston, Texas, and was overwhelmed by the dizzying array of meats and vegetables on offer.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Cybersecurity Community Must Not Remain Silent On Executive Order Attacking Former CISA Director
Discussion: American Greatness and NBC News
Bloomberg:
Trump Says He Aced a Cognitive Test During Physical Exam
Bloomberg:
The Trump Family Is Going All-In on Crypto Projects, From Bitcoin Mining to Stablecoins
Discussion: New York Times
Christine Fernando / Associated Press:
An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges
Discussion: Ms. Magazine
Stef W. Kight / Axios:
Scoop: Trump to interview on Spanish-language Fox show
Joe Walsh / CBS News:
Trump administration vows release of RFK assassination files within days. Here's what we know.
Discussion: USA Today and Breitbart
 Earlier Items: 
Andrew Trunsky / New York Times:
She's Young, Trump-Friendly, and Has a White House Press Pass
Amanda Lewellyn / Vox:
The playbook Trump is following to deport protesters
Discussion: New York Daily News
Associated Press:
Trump's China tariff shocks US importers. One CEO calls it ‘end of days’
Discussion: Breitbart and KRDO
Fox News:
Columbia anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil can be deported, judge rules
Cecilia Nowell / The Guardian:
New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line
Eve Sampson / New York Times:
Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says
Madeline Bartos / CBS News:
Butler man accused of threatening to assassinate Trump
Zachary Schermele / USA Today:
Exclusive: Trump budget proposal would fully eliminate Head Start
Discussion: Detroit Free Press