THE BAD NEWS

There is so much more, but some top lowlights from the past week include:

  • Trump cut off $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, paused intelligence sharing, and temporarily suspended satellite imagery services. Russia subsequently ramped updeadly attacks. 

  • Trump launched 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico but then rolled them back after only a day, stating they would be on hold until April 2 now, creating chaos for businesses and markets. He also increased tariffs on goods from China from 10% to 20%. 

  • Trump gave an unhinged speech to Congress packed with lies about fraud in the government, the economy, immigration, and more. Ten Democrats voted with Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green for disrupting the speech. 

  •  Trump threatened to halt federal funding to any college, school, or university that allowed what he called “illegal” protests, creating a chilling effect on free speech. 

  •  Republican leaders urged elected representatives to avoid town halls due to the onslaught of constituent anger and bad press (public pressure working!). 

  •  A federal judge declined to block the Trump administration’s mass firings of contractors from USAID. 

  • Trump called for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Nicole Wallace to be “forced to resign,” continuing his efforts to cow critical media. 

  • A federal judge declined to block DOGE from accessing a sensitive federal payment system at the Treasury Department. 

 

THE GOOD NEWS

  • The Supreme Court (in a 5-4 vote) rejected the Trump administration’s freeze of $2 billion in foreign aid for work already completed. 

  • The US Merit Systems Protection Board ordered the Trump administration to reinstate 6,000 probationary employees who had been fired from the Department of Agriculture. 

  • A federal judge filed a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from imposing drastic medical research funding cuts. 

  • The American Bar Association released a statement calling out Trump and his allies for threatening judges. 

  • Trump reversed course on plans to sign an executive order dismantling the Department of Education. 

  • Stand up for Science” rallies took place across the country to protest cuts to research funding and agencies that advance science.