memeorandum: FBI analyst targeted in Kash Patel's book placed on leave (NBC News)

2:45 PM ET, April 12, 2025

Top Items:

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 …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, NPR, HotAir, The Hill, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, TechCrunch, Tom's Hardware, Fortune, Politico, Raw Story, Federal Register, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

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.

Discussion: USA Today, The Verge, Fox Business, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, CNBC, RedState, NBC News, 9to5Mac and Mediaite, more at Techmeme »

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 …

Discussion: The Guardian, New York Post, UPI, Axios, 9to5Google and The Post Millennial

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

Auzinea Bacon / CNN:
Smartphones and computers are now exempt from Trump's latest tariffs

Discussion: Scripps News, ABC News, VentureBeat, Business Insider, One America News Network and Forbes

Associated Press:
Trump administration says it will exclude some electronics from reciprocal tariffs

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Al Jazeera and Ars Technica

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

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

Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump's Horrifying Removal of Man in “Error” Takes an Even Darker Turn

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, Vox, Law & Crime, Scripps News, WHDH-TV and Politico

Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
Supreme Court avoids confronting Trump so far, even when it rules against him

Discussion: Mother Jones, Bloomberg, NPR and Washington Post

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 …

Discussion: The Kyiv Independent, KRDO and New York Times

Jonathan Mahler / New York Times: How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin's Russia

Reuters:
Trump envoy's embrace of Russian demands worries Republicans, U.S. allies

Discussion: NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, The Kyiv Independent, Axios, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, New York Post, Associated Press, National Review, Tennessee Star and Bloomberg

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

NBC News: FBI analyst targeted in Kash Patel's book placed on leave

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: Mediaite, Fox News, Politico and Raw Story

Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:
HHS officials did not know how many people have been fired

Discussion: Politico

Alexander Tin / CBS News:
FDA to replace laid-off employees with contractors, sources say

Discussion: Politico, STAT and TechCrunch

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: Breitbart, The Daily Signal and Boston Herald

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.

Discussion: Mostly signs

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.

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: The Chicago Crusader and Vanity Fair

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

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: The Guardian, UPI, Baltimore Sun, The Federalist, New York Post, Raw Story, Wall Street Journal and Migrant Insider

USA Today:
Donald Trump authorizes U.S. military to take control of land on southern border

Discussion: The White House, Bloomberg, CBS News, KRDO, The Hill and The Gateway Pundit

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

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 …

Discussion: The Independent

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.

Discussion: The Independent Florida …, Raw Story, WBUR and New York Daily News

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 …

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 …

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.

Bloomberg:

Trump Says He Aced a Cognitive Test During Physical Exam … President Donald Trump said he underwent and passed a cognitive exam during a roughly four-hour physical exam conducted on Friday by his physician. — “I took a cognitive test and I don't know what to tell you other than I got every answer right …