Trump administration 2024-2028

[lenaitch]

This should be good. I hear they've got a pretty good legal department

Trump officials cut billions in Harvard funds after university defies demands​

Education department says $2.3bn in funds to be frozen after university rejects slew of demands as political ploy


The US education department is freezing about $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University, the agency said on Monday.

The announcement comes as the Ivy League school has decided to fight the White House’s demands that it crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations, including shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” said a member of a department taskforce on combating antisemitism in a statement.

The education department taskforce on combating antisemitism said in a statement it was freezing $2.2bn in grants and $60m in multi-year contract value to Harvard.

Trump officials cut billions in Harvard funds after university defies demands

Education department says $2.3bn in funds to be frozen after university rejects slew of demands as political ploy

www.theguardian.com

And here, apparently, are the conditions for getting back in the good books.

https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf

 

[lenaitch]

I think it's safe to say that when the Trump administration talks about "deporting anybody who hates America" - they are referring to illegal aliens being deported, not natural born American citizens.

Lets not forget the above is just a quote from someone representing the administration - it isn't proposed legislation, and doesn't not have to be analyzed in the same black & white lens or interpreted as literal.

I would find it far more concerning if this was an official, massive policy change announcement rather than some official driving a point to the media

When has anything this Administration has done been via legislation? This has been governance by Executive Order, by fiat, the scope of which is ill-defined.

 

[ModlrMike]

I think it's safe to say that when the Trump administration talks about "deporting anybody who hates America" - they are referring to illegal aliens being deported, not natural born American citizens.

Lets not forget the above is just a quote from someone representing the administration - it isn't proposed legislation, and doesn't not have to be analyzed in the same black & white lens or interpreted as literal.

I would find it far more concerning if this was an official, massive policy change announcement rather than some official driving a point to the media

As opposed to:

'Homegrowns are next': Trump doubles down on sending American 'criminals' to foreign prisons

President Donald Trump told Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele he wanted to send "homegrown criminals" to El Salvador next and encouraged Bukele to build more prisons.

abcnews.go.com

And then there's the Press Secretary:

I think we call this christening the ground in our business.

 

[McG]

It is “normalizing.” They casually toss about these ideas to make them seem more normal when eventually acted upon. After you hear something absolutely insane a bunch of times, it starts to sound less shocking, and then you are insensitized to the insanity when it actually happens. Most of the crazy, evil stuff MAGA are doing now was hinted at by Trump & entourage even before the election, but apologists defended it as humour or hyperbole.

 

[Lumber]

Karoline Leavitt Crashes When Asked if Trump Is Abusing His Power

“The president has long said that it would be an abuse of power for a president to direct prosecutors to investigate him. Last week, President Trump explicitly directed the Justice Department to scrutinize Chris Krebs to see if it can find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing,” asked Swan. “How is that not an abuse of power, to direct the Justice Department to look into an individual—a named individual?”

“Look, the president signed that executive order. It’s the position of the president in this White House that it’s well within his authority to do it, otherwise he wouldn’t have signed it. And he signed it, and that’s his policy,” Leavitt said.

According to Leavitt’s logic, Trump’s order to investigate Krebs was not an “abuse of power” for the simple fact that Trump was the one doing it. It doesn’t get more authoritarian than that.

Karoline Leavitt Crashes When Asked if Trump Is Abusing His Power

Donald Trump’s own words are coming back to bite him.

newrepublic.com

 

[dapaterson]

 

[HavokFour]

From the people that blamed the invasion of Ukraine on Ukraine, the only country to ever invoke article 5 and now may not respond if anyone else does, now brings...

JD Vance says Europe should have done more to stop Iraq War – DW – 04/15/2025

US Vice President JD Vance has called on European states to show greater independence, urging them not to be US "vassals." He also said EU governments could have done more to oppose Washington over the Iraq War.

www.dw.com

Alt: https://archive.ph/0jpJv

 

[MilEME09]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1912300658713076029

Oh my two advisors suspended so far, almost like they aren't getting people....oh wait they arent

 

[HavokFour]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1912300658713076029

Oh my two advisors suspended so far, almost like they aren't getting people....oh wait they arent

Got to stay off target intentionally. Would look silly if you were to point the gun at yourself.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The (painful) process of onshoring semi-conductor manufacturing continues...

U.S. announces probe into chip, electronics imports, paving the way for new tariffs​

• The probe encompasses a wide range of items, including chip components, chipmaking equipment, and “downstream products that contain semiconductors,” according to a Federal Register notice.
• The document further confirms that chips and the electronics supply chain will not be excluded from Trump’s tariff plans, despite receiving exemptions from his “reciprocal tariffs” on Friday.

Nvidia, the chipmaker powering much of the artificial intelligence boom, announced on Monday a plan to design and build factories that, for the first time, will produce NVIDIA AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S.

Last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s largest chip foundry, announced its intention to increase its existing investments in advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. by an additional $100 billion.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/15/us-discloses-details-on-chips-probe-as-it-prepares-new-tariffs-.html

 

[Brad Sallows]

I don't consider it an imagined threat if POTUS starts detaining people and shipping them overseas.

It should depend a lot on who they are. The particular case in question looks like it will blow up in their faces if the alleged gang ties turn out to be bullsh!t. Nevertheless, there has been debate in Canada over what to do with naturalized citizens who are terrorists or egregious criminals - keep them and deal with them in our judicial systems or deport them - without anyone panicking over imminent widespread loss of individual liberties. Every naturalized citizen has a prior citizenship; the proposition that "they're our responsibility now" falls afoul of that.

Defending unsympathetic cases is an excellent place to stake out the perimeter of individual liberties. Politically, picking every possible fight to keep criminals in the country - especially criminals who have that status separately from an illegal presence in the country - is the wrong side of an 80/20 issue. If anti-Trump zealots panic the normies into tolerating illiberal action, that'll be partly the fault of the zealots. I don't see them trying to help find useful bright lines right now.

 

[brihard]

It should depend a lot on who they are. The particular case in question looks like it will blow up in their faces if the alleged gang ties turn out to be bullsh!t. Nevertheless, there has been debate in Canada over what to do with naturalized citizens who are terrorists or egregious criminals - keep them and deal with them in our judicial systems or deport them - without anyone panicking over imminent widespread loss of individual liberties. Every naturalized citizen has a prior citizenship; the proposition that "they're our responsibility now" falls afoul of that.

Defending unsympathetic cases is an excellent place to stake out the perimeter of individual liberties. Politically, picking every possible fight to keep criminals in the country - especially criminals who have that status separately from an illegal presence in the country - is the wrong side of an 80/20 issue. If anti-Trump zealots panic the normies into tolerating illiberal action, that'll be partly the fault of the zealots. I don't see them trying to help find useful bright lines right now.

An important distinction is that when a state ‘deports’ someone, it simply means ‘seeya’ and they’re sent to their home jurisdiction and that’s that. If they face some home country judicial process, that’s not the deporting country’s concern.

That’s not what the U.S. is doing in the case of El Salvador. The U.S. isn’t simply ‘deporting’ people, but rather has sent some to be imprisoned in El Salvador, and the U.S. is paying El Salvador to provide that outsourced incarceration. They’re being jailed in horrendous conditions at the behest of and for the benefit of the U.S. That has happened without due process and without the write to challenge their detention by way of habeas corpus. Trump is talking openly about exploring the same arrangement for U.S. citizens.

It’s like if a boatload of Sri Lankans landed in BC, and we paid the U.S. to imprison them in Guantanamo. And what Trump is talking about now is akin to us taking Canadian citizens convicted of very serious offences and, similarly, paying the U.S. to imprison them in Guantanamo.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The U.S. isn’t simply ‘deporting’ people, but rather has sent some to be imprisoned in El Salvador, and the U.S. is paying El Salvador to provide that outsourced incarceration. They’re being jailed in horrendous conditions at the behest of and for the benefit of the U.S. That has happened without due process and without the write to challenge their detention by way of habeas corpus. Trump is talking openly about exploring the same arrangement for U.S. citizens.

The process and evidence are the parts I'm waiting to see successful pushback on. Venezuelans should be deported to Venezuela. But the Venezuelan government might not allow them to get off the plane, or might simply release them to try again. Critics will have to find a path out that isn't "we have no option but to keep them"; like a constitution, liberties can't reasonably be expected to be a suicide pact.

Paying a third country to incarcerate nationals of a country that probably won't receive them back, or deal with criminals as criminals, is going to fail the virtue test but will pass the utility test if it helps dry up the illegal immigration taps.

A reminder how the US sometimes deals with people who hate America. There's a lot of sh!t to go around. Prior administrations coloured outside the lines and here we are.

 

[lenaitch]

From the people that blamed the invasion of Ukraine on Ukraine, the only country to ever invoke article 5 and now may not respond if anyone else does, now brings...

JD Vance says Europe should have done more to stop Iraq War – DW – 04/15/2025

US Vice President JD Vance has called on European states to show greater independence, urging them not to be US "vassals." He also said EU governments could have done more to oppose Washington over the Iraq War.

www.dw.com

Alt: https://archive.ph/0jpJv

'We want you to be more independent - but only buy our stuff'.

 

[HavokFour]

Ka ching....

https://twitter.com/x/status/1910242293338038673

'We want you to be more independent - but only buy our stuff'.

A real mystery as to why Europe might not want to buy American weapon systems anymore, a true head scratcher.

Zelensky's 'always looking to purchase missiles' — Trump dismisses Ukraine's request to buy Patriots

"You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

kyivindependent.com

Alt: https://archive.ph/ZfTca

 

[PPCLI Guy]

A real mystery as to why Europe might not want to buy American weapon systems anymore, a true head scratcher.

Zelensky's 'always looking to purchase missiles' — Trump dismisses Ukraine's request to buy Patriots

"You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

kyivindependent.com

Alt: https://archive.ph/ZfTca

Why would Trump sell a system that would protect UKR from russian missiles

As I mentioned in earlier posts, the grand deal could very well be that RUS abandons IRN in return for US abandoning UKR...

 

[HavokFour]

Why would Trump sell a system that would protect UKR from russian missiles

As I mentioned in earlier posts, the grand deal could very well be that RUS abandons IRN in return for US abandoning UKR...

Luckily Europe is still being a massive thorn in his side with the continued support for Ukraine. I don't see this changing.

In other news expect Trump to go on a Truth Social bender today or late at night tonight, courtesy of J. Powell. Rate cut is definitely not going to happen under his watch and the overall economic outlook is very grim.

 

[Good2Golf]

Why would Trump sell a system that would protect UKR from russian missiles

 

[CBH99]

It is “normalizing.” They casually toss about these ideas to make them seem more normal when eventually acted upon. After you hear something absolutely insane a bunch of times, it starts to sound less shocking, and then you are insensitized to the insanity when it actually happens. Most of the crazy, evil stuff MAGA are doing now was hinted at by Trump & entourage even before the election, but apologists defended it as humour or hyperbole.

Honest question. I ask because the people on this forum are fairly reasonable & we're all pretty well seasoned with each other now...

What "crazy, evil stuff" is MAGA doing now??

 

[KevinB]

Why would Trump sell a system that would protect UKR from russian missiles

As I mentioned in earlier posts, the grand deal could very well be that RUS pretends to abandon IRN for a short period in return for US totally abandoning UKR...

FIFY.