The theme of this cycle was “second verse, worse than the first”–a lot of themes in the previous cycle were repeated, but ramped up. Needless to say, this doesn’t lend itself to awesome news, although we do have some bright spots. Hang in there, y’all.
Standard and new reminders apply: we may be starting my ninth year of journalism, but I summarize news within my areas of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a tariff!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. We’re still playing around with formatting and frequency as I navigate two healing ribs and all of the everything. And, of course, for the law things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!
Spills in Aisle 47:
As we speed down the Descent to Fascism Highway, I think it’s important to draw a distinction between authoritarianism and Inept Governance. We’re going to start with the latter, as it’s a bit less scary to contemplate (though only a bit):
- To Hell in a ‘Waste’ Basket (cont). We continue to see absurd cuts to various governmental departments and funds, as well as all kinds of disorganized chaos. This time, there were cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, particularly among their environmental justice staff. We also saw the Secretary of State announce sweeping cuts to the Department of State literally one day after he claimed a document outlining said cuts was “fake news.” Conversely, we were told the Women’s Health Initiative was being scrapped, only for the administration to walk that one back a few days later. About the only good news on this front is that Musk said he plans to leave DOGE, on account of Tesla has been freefalling and nobody likes him.
- Mr. Trump’s Wild Tariff Ride (cont).* As foretold by prophecy, the market started to calm down after Trump walked back reciprocal tariffs and expressed willingness to lower the ridiculous tariffs he has imposed on China. But things are still very volatile, because Trump went right back to playing hopscotch with the economy by coming for head of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell. And although he eventually cooled it with the Powell thing, he immediately turned around and threatened to reinstate the reciprocal tariffs. Unsurprisingly, the country is not impressed, and most of us are expecting our savings to go the way of the dodo bird in the coming months.
- Hegseth’s Mixed Signal. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in the news again this cycle for again sharing classified information on Signal. This time, it was apparently on purpose, as it was sent to his wife and brother. In the resulting hubbub, it also came out that he has Signal installed on his computer at the Pentagon. Hegseth is responding by criticizing “leakers” on Fox News, because of course he is, and the DNC is calling for his removal.
The Latest Spring Fashy:
- Inhumane Immigration Actions. This has been an awful cycle for America’s descent into fascism, and nowhere is that more clear that in the immigration arena. There were a lot more stories about unconstitutional (and frankly scary) deportation, including: 1) Trump floating the idea of deporting U.S. birthright citizens convicted of crimes to his gulag in El Salvador; 2) Trump straight-up deporting young citizen children with complex medical needs despite an injunction prohibiting him from doing that; 3) the arrest of a lawful permanent resident at his citizenship interview because of his protest of the war in Palestine; and 4) the DOJ claiming that Trump doesn’t have to listen to the SCOTUS order to facilitate returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man ‘mistakenly’ deported to the aforementioned El Salvadoran gulag because… I don’t know, reasons. (Several House Democrats and one Senator traveled to El Salvador this week, incidentally, to attempt to aid with Garcia’s release.) According to a Washington Post article this week, these illegal deportations keep happening in part because the administration set a goal of deporting 1 million people this year. That figure, however, does not account for the FBI arresting a Wisconsin judge on claims that she was “obstructing” ICE from her bench, nor the FBI director posting her arrest on social media (which is against DOJ policy). The White House also falsely marked 6,000 immigrants as dead in federal databases so that they didn’t have to pay them benefits.
- From the Department of Health and Human Sacrifices (cont). The fascism news on health is pretty bad this cycle as well. RFK announced a plan to “study” autism by reviewing thousands of private health records and creating a registry, which sounds an awful lot like laying groundwork for eugenics. (He also falsely claimed yet again that autism is caused by environmental exposure, which it definitely isn’t, but that sure does twist the knife about this administration canceling grants on environmental toxins.) Meanwhile, a leaked HHS document outlining a proposed budget for FY2026 featured even more aggressive cuts than we saw last cycle, with a further 40% reduction of funding for NIH and the removal of four more departments. And since DOGE now controls federal grant systems, many more grant payments have been (probably illegally) frozen or delayed.
- White House Fascism Potpourri. In addition to the immigration and health issues outlined above, the White House had a grab bag of other acts of fascism this cycle: 1) The administration issued an executive order that walks back the part of the Civil Rights Act that deals with disparate impact liability, rolling back important equal rights protections; 2) the White House removed their wired press slot from the press pool, effectively re-barring the Associated Press from access immediately after an injunction said they can’t do that under the First Amendment; and 3) Trump issued a memo ordering the investigation of ActBlue, the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, which is a pretty blatant (and as far as I can tell unfounded) attack on political opposition.
Silver Linings:
- Recent Judicial Resilience. On the plus side, we did see a lot of judicial resilience this cycle. SCOTUS told Trump not to deport a group of Venezuelan people under the Alien Enemies Act, broadening a prior holding that said people need to have meaningful due process. Federal courts also held that Trump can’t order the withholding of school funds due to DEI initiatives in schools, and that he also can’t require proof of citizenship to vote. It’s an ongoing tug-of-war between the courts and the executive branch, but at least the courts are still tugging.
So that’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this racer therapy rabbit and a less corrupt government. I’ll be back next time with more and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!
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