Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Trump names Secretary of State Rubio as acting national security adviser, taps Waltz for UN envoy

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting national security adviser to replace Mike Waltz, whom he is nominating for United Nations ambassador. Trump announced the moves shortly after news broke that Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong were departing the administration. Read More.

Ukraine and the US have finally signed a minerals deal. What does it include?

After months of tense negotiations, the U.S. and Ukraine have signed a deal that is expected to give Washington access to the country’s critical minerals and other natural resources. Here is a look at the deal. Read More.

Trump's agenda faces courtroom setbacks as Justice Department lawyers struggle to win over judges

According to an Associated Press tally, Trump executive actions have been partially or fully blocked by the courts around 70 times while judges have not impeded the president's orders in nearly 50 cases. Dozens of others are pending. Read More.

Trump's health agency urges therapy for transgender youth, not broader gender-affirming health care

President Donald Trump’s administration released a lengthy review of transgender health care on Thursday that advocates for a greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming medical care for youths with gender dysphoria. Read More.

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Waltz's new gig

Mike Waltz has been a dead man walking in the White House for the past month, and the outgoing national security adviser started to act like it, Trump administration sources tell Axios' Marc Caputo and Barak Ravid.

• But instead of outright firing him, President Trump nominated him for United Nations ambassador. He asked Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to withdraw her nomination for the role to preserve the House's slim GOP majority.

?️ The big picture: Signalgate badly damaged Waltz, but it wasn't his only problem. He got on the wrong side of everyone from conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

? Behind the scenes: Waltz didn't work as well with other Cabinet and White House officials as was hoped.

• On a trip to Greenland in March, Vice President Vance counseled him about "working more collaboratively," a senior White House official told Axios at the time.
• The former Florida congressman and Green Beret also treated Wiles with a dismissive attitude, two officials said.
• "He treated her like staff and didn't realize he's the staff, she's the embodiment of the president," one of them said. "Susie is a deeply loyal person and the disrespect was made all the worse because it was disloyal."

Screenshot: @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social

?️ Then came Loomer, the social media influencer who has crusaded against what she claims are "disloyal" people and "neocons" who never should have been hired in Trump 2.0.

• In a meeting with Trump a month ago, Loomer urged him to fire some of the staffers Waltz had appointed, and shared an old video of Waltz criticizing Trump years ago.
• "When you stack everything on Waltz, he just couldn't survive. Laura Loomer gets a confirmed kill," an administration adviser familiar with the discussions said.

? The intrigue: In recent days, Wiles began collecting names to replace Waltz but kept the process and discussions strictly under wraps.

• Trump envoy Steve Witkoff has been floated in some reports but isn't interested in the job, a source familiar told Axios.

Trump announced Waltz's new gig on Truth Social, saying Waltz had "worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first."

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security adviser — underscoring his growing importance to Trump.

Go deeper.

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Today's New York Post cover ? The doll debate also continues. After President Trump acknowledged toy shortages could happen over tariffs, top adviser Stephen Miller argued today that "almost every American consumer" agrees they'd pay more for an American-made doll, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. Miller emphasized the administration's persistent argument that tariffs would force manufacturers to produce more goods in the U.S. But domestic retailers fear the trade war with China will leave prices higher and shelves empty. ? What to watch: Concerns about job losses and fears about price hikes from Trump's tariffs have fueled what Conference Board senior economist Stephanie Guichard recently called "pervasive pessimism about the future."

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Trump-appointed judge rules using Alien Enemies Act for deportations is unlawful

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration unlawfully cited the Aliens Enemies Act in deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/01/trump-alien-enemies-act-unlawful-judge?

Supply chain

Some of the last cargo ships carrying Chinese products without crippling tariffs are arriving in US ports. The countdown to higher prices has begun as shipments loaded after April 9 will carry the 145% tariff President Donald Trump slapped on goods from China.

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Waltz Time (Andrew Harnik / Getty)

View in browser For weeks, Washington has been waiting to see how long National Security Adviser Michael Waltz could hold on. The answer, we now know, was 101 days. Multiple outlets reported this morning that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, would be leaving the Trump administration. His firing comes roughly seven weeks after he added The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal chat in which top administration officials discussed a strike on Yemen before and after it took place. In legal and security terms, the mortal sin was conducting official business in an unsecured and unpreserved forum; in political terms, it was including Goldberg. Trump acknowledged last week in an interview with Goldberg, and my colleagues Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, that the scandal was “a very big story” and that his administration had learned “Maybe don’t use Signal, okay?” Trump reportedly hesitated to fire Waltz because he didn’t want to give the media a “scalp” or acknowledge that he cared, but his resolve apparently weakened. Any other national security adviser would have been deservedly fired after the leak, but even without Signalgate, it’s hard to imagine that Waltz would have survived very long. (He did, at least, outlast the first national security adviser of Trump’s first term, Michael Flynn, who didn’t reach the one-month mark.) Waltz was one of the more respected and expert hands on Trump’s team, and that would have doomed him sooner or later. Waltz’s demise was foretold shortly after Signalgate, when the 9/11–conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who holds no government role, persuaded Trump to fire several NSC staffers whom she believed were insufficiently loyal. Implicit in her critique and Trump’s acquiescence was a belief that Waltz wasn’t really on the team, either. Waltz is a right-winger and a convert to Trumpism, but he is not a blind loyalist. He won four Bronze Stars while serving in U.S. Special Forces. He worked at the Pentagon during the George W. Bush administration, and was elected to four terms in Congress. As national security adviser, he tried to bring his expertise to the service of the president. The problem is that Waltz was trying to serve two masters. As I wrote in January, Trump doesn’t care about national security. He’s not against it, or actively trying to undermine it; he’s just not interested. He’s not interested in hearing reasoned advice, developed through a careful process, as the National Security Council has done—especially if this advice contradicts his impulses or ideology. On an issue like the strikes on Houthis in Yemen, where Trump has fewer interests to balance, problems don’t tend to arise. But on marquee issues that Trump can’t ignore, and where tough trade-offs and complicated strategy enter the picture—such as with Ukraine or China—someone has to start giving him news he doesn’t like. Trump doesn’t want expertise. He started his presidency by sweeping out dozens of career officials whom his team viewed as Democrats in disguise or creatures of the establishment. Since then, the ground has continued to shift. My colleague Isaac Stanley-Becker reported recently that as Waltz’s control of the NSC slipped away, the real powers on the council were the longtime Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff. These two represent very different models: the ideologue and the old pal, respectively. Miller treats the NSC “not as a forum to weigh policy options,” Stanley-Becker wrote, “but as a platform to advance his own hard-line immigration agenda.” The handy thing about ideology is that it effaces all the hard choices that a pragmatic approach to the world requires. Witkoff, meanwhile, seems to have neither an ideology nor any expertise that might interfere with his fidelity to Trump. Though he lacks diplomatic experience, he has been friends with Trump for years, and the president has sent him ricocheting around the globe—with little to show for it so far. Trump’s allergy to expertise also helps explain why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appears to be on more solid footing than Waltz despite worse scandals: He, too, was involved in Signalgate. Though Hegseth was not the one who added Goldberg to the chat, Hegseth did share detailed attack plans in it. He also shared sensitive information with his wife and others who had no need for it, installed an insecure line into the Pentagon, and can’t manage to keep his staff from turning over. (“I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump told my colleagues in an interview last week. “I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”) Waltz’s ouster might be an ominous sign, however, for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a traditional Republican and Trump critic turned vassal who holds another delicate foreign-policy job. Now Waltz joins a list of discarded Trump national security advisers, alongside Flynn, H. R. McMaster, and John Bolton. That unhappy fraternity is only likely to grow. Every administration official serves at the pleasure of the president, and nothing incurs this president’s displeasure faster than trying to get him to care about national security. Related: Inside Mike Waltz’s White House exit The double standard at the center of the Signal debacle

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? Trump relights Signalgate

Surprise! Rather than firing national security adviser Michael Waltz after Signalgate, President Trump is sending him through the gauntlet of a Senate confirmation process.

• Waltz will be the nominee for UN ambassador, giving Senate Dems the klieg lights of a confirmation hearing to draw attention to the text messages that still light up Waltz's phone.

Why it matters: Waltz is the first big-name ouster in Trump 2.0. But instead of a quiet exit, he — and his still-active use of Signal — will face Senate Democrats who are craving a chance to show how much they hate Trump.

The UN job was supposed to go to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who was then told the House majority was at stake if she left. That debacle deeply complicated her relationship with Speaker Mike Johnson, who is trying to draw her back into the fold.

• Stefanik now has to watch Waltz get a shot at the job she was promised after he lasted 102 days in his first Trump role.
• It was the special election to backfill Waltz's House seat in a heavily red Florida district that spooked Trump into pulling Stefanik's nomination.
• Vice President Vance tried to argue today that Waltz's new position is a promotion. But "the UN really doesn't matter," a White House adviser said when Trump pulled Stefanik's nomination in March.

Zoom in: Waltz was seen on Signal yesterday by a Reuters photographer.

• "I look forward to a thorough confirmation hearing," Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) posted on X in reference to the Reuters photo.
• Names on the screen — which White House comms director Steven Cheung said was an authorized app on a government phone — included "JD Vance" and what appeared to be "Rubio," "Witkoff" and "Gabbard."

Between the lines: Waltz's problems in the role ran deeper than Signalgate, as our Axios colleagues Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo reported today.

• He treated White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles dismissively, they report. And he got on conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer's radar, who urged Trump to fire many of Waltz's hires.

— Justin Green and Hans Nichols

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Trump says it’s Biden’s economy, but businesses and economists beg to differ When the stock market was climbing in January 2024, Donald Trump knew exactly who deserved credit: He did. When the stock market fell Wednesday on news that the American economy had gone backward during the first three months of 2025, Trump knew exactly who was to blame: Joe Biden. Read more.

Why this matters: “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,’’ Trump posted. “Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.” Yet for economists puzzling out how prices and hiring will change in the coming months, or businesses struggling with a starkly uncertain future, Trump’s massive and unpredictable import taxes on almost every country do in fact bear much of the blame.   Trump has blown up the existing world trade system by slapping 10% import taxes – tariffs – on friends and foes alike. He’s plastered 145% tariffs on China, drawing retaliation from Beijing that threatens to end trade between the world’s two largest economies. He’s also hit foreign steel, aluminum and autos. The erratic way he’s rolled out his protectionist policies – introducing, then suspending, tariffs, then announcing new ones – has left companies, consumers and investors bewildered.   Trump’s attempt to shift blame for bad economic news to his predecessor raises a question: At what point in a four-year term does a new president assume responsibility for the economy’s performance? Georgia Tech University’s Mark Zachary Taylor, who studies the economic policies of the American presidents, notes that for a typical president, “it might take six months to two years for us to accurately call the economy ‘theirs.’”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ China says it’s evaluating US overtures for trade talks, but tariffs remain an obstacle   Vance heralds ‘industrial renaissance’ in his visit to a South Carolina steel plant   Waiting for a shoe to drop in the US jobs market

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Trump signs executive order directing federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. Read more.

Why this matters: It’s the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’” The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump’s election.   Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agreed to eliminate diversity programs and other measures Trump has found objectionable.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ May Day demonstrations in US and around the globe protest Trump agenda   Army plans for a potential parade on Trump’s birthday call for 6,600 soldiers, AP learns   Email mistake reveals secret plans to end research on Head Start and other child safety net programs   Hegseth orders Army to cut costs by merging some commands and slashing jobs   Rubio takes on two top national security roles after embracing Trump’s ‘America First’ vision   A US-led effort to end the war in Ukraine looks favorable to Russia, but mixed signals emerge   Trump threatens sanctions against buyers of Iranian oil after US-Iran nuclear talks are postponed   California Democrats reject push for harsher penalties for soliciting sex from older teens   Trump’s pick for top prosecutor in DC is testing Republican loyalty   Trump administration asks Supreme Court to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelan migrants   ICE joins DeSantis in touting one-week record of arresting 1,120 people in the US illegally   Homeland Security pushes back against criticism of immigration raid at Oklahoma home   Defense Department designates a second military zone on US border, extending into Texas   Trump offers advice to University of Alabama graduates in speech interspersed with politics   WATCH: Senators react to shake-up in Trump's national security team

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Golden Age ... for Trumps

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

President Trump warned American families this week that they may have to make do with fewer — and more expensive — holiday toys. But for Trump's own inner circle, a veritable Golden Age is well underway, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: Most presidents try to avoid even the appearance of using the office or public policy for personal enrichment. But Trump has blended official power and personal business in unprecedented ways — often in plain sight. What's happening: Trump, his sons and their associates have launched a wave of high-dollar projects. ? World Liberty Financial: The Trump-backed crypto venture has raised more than $550 million. Trump himself serves as the company's "Chief Crypto Advocate," while his administration pursues policies — including a federal crypto reserve — that have boosted the value of assets held by the firm. ? OFFICIAL TRUMP: The president's meme coin surged more than 60% last week after its website advertised an "intimate private dinner" with Trump for the top 220 coin holders — plus a "special VIP" reception and White House tour for the top 25. The website later scrubbed references to the "White House." ? Executive Branch: Donald Trump Jr. and his business partners are launching an exclusive D.C. club with a $500,000 membership fee, pitched as a private hangout for donors and business moguls to rub shoulders with top Trump officials. ?️ Foreign deals: At least 19 foreign Trump-branded projects will be in development over the next four years, according to ethics watchdog CREW. Just this week, the Trump Organization announced a deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar. Trump, whose first foreign visit will be to Saudi Arabia, also hosted a Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament at his Doral club in Florida earlier this month. ? Merchandise: The Trump Organization is selling "Trump 2028" hats, a nod to the president's musings about an unconstitutional third term. Trump hawked Bibles, sneakers, perfume and trading cards during the 2024 campaign, and his political operation continues to rely on MAGA merchandise to raise funds. ? Corporate boards: Dominari Holdings, a small public financial services company with headquarters in New York's Trump Tower, saw its stock price surge more than 1,200% in about six weeks after Trump Jr. and Eric Trump joined its advisory board and took equity stakes worth millions. Trump Jr. also has been named to the board of a digital firearms retailer, called GrabAGun, that's due to go public this summer. Screenshot from World Liberty Financial's website. The other side: Allies note that Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have long maintained business careers independent of their father's political office, and say their recent ventures are consistent with that history.

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? Behind the scenes: How Waltz got the boot

President Trump soured on Mike Waltz as his national security adviser for multiple reasons. But ultimately it came down to vibes when he replaced Waltz with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who'll temporarily do both jobs, Axios' Marc Caputo reports.

• Why it matters: The boot for Waltz — two days after the media circus on Day 100 — was this term's first big shakeup. It showed how responsive Trump remains to optics, even while feeling as empowered as ever.

How it happened: In Trump's mind, Signalgate was the first time he was unable to control the narrative or win the day, top advisers tell Axios.

• Waltz came to symbolize Trump's first obstacle. Momentum is so important to the president that he emphasized the concept in his advice last night to University of Alabama graduates.
• Waltz also hadn't collaborated well with others in the White House. (Go deeper.)

It was Waltz who added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a thread in the messaging app Signal where attack plans were discussed. The embarrassing debacle embittered Trump.

• "He just came to look at Waltz like he was bad luck, bad news," a White House official familiar with Trump's thinking told Axios. "There was nothing Mike could do at that point."

Behind the scenes: As criticism rose about tariffs, Trump would occasionally return to fuming about Waltz — who had nothing to do with that policy.

• Immediately after the Signal story broke, Trump wanted to fire Waltz but held off, Axios reported at the time.

Trump was ready to fire Waltz or force him out. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles advocated for the soft landing of ambassador to the UN — an open role after Trump pulled the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

• Exactly what triggered Trump's first big personnel shakeup of the term was unknown even to some close aides. But Trump makes decisions by his gut.

What's next: Waltz now will have to undergo Senate confirmation for UN ambassador — meaning a raw reliving of questions about the national security team's use of Signal.

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✂️ Trump budget slashes domestic programs

President Trump will lob his FY 2026 budget request at Congress today, calling for deep cuts in foreign aid and renewable energy and increased spending for the border and national security, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

• Why it matters: In size and scope, Trump's budget amounts to another declaration of war on the status quo — and the priorities and programs that animate the Democratic Party.

It aims to reduce discretionary non-defense spending — which doesn't include Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — by $163 billion from this year.

• In total, for non-defense programs that need to be reauthorized every year, the Office of Management and Budget wants to allocate $557 billion for the next fiscal year.
• That represents a 22.6% cut, according to Wall Street Journal, which first reported some of the budget numbers (gift link).

For national security spending, Trump will ask for a record $1.01 trillion, for a whopping 13% increase, according to Bloomberg.

• Funding for EPA, the Department of Education and what was known as the U.S. Agency for International Development will be starkly reduced.
• Trump is also taking aim at federal grants that were authorized during the Biden administration, including those for "environmental justice" renewable energy projects.

?️ Breaking: President Trump signed an executive order last night that's designed to cut funding to NPR and PBS, Axios' Rebecca Falconer reports.

• The order calls the two biggest public broadcasters in the U.S. "biased" and directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to "cease direct funding."

An NPR statement says: "Public radio serves 99% of the population over the air, counters the growth of local news deserts across the country, and, in some cases, may be a community's only source of daily, local news from journalists who live in and know their communities."

• Keep reading ... White House announcement ... Executive order.

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The Untold Story of How Ed Martin Ghostwrote Online Attacks Against a Judge — and Still Became a Top Trump Prosecutor

The attacks on Judge John Barberis in the fall of 2016 appeared on his personal Facebook page. They impugned his ethics, criticized a recent ruling and branded him as a “politician” with the “LOWEST rating for a judge in Illinois.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/ed-martin-trump-interim-dc-us-attorney-secret-judge-attacks?

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Trump says the government will revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The university’s president says that would be illegal

President Donald Trump says Harvard University will be stripped of its tax-exempt status — redoubling an extraordinary threat that the Ivy League school’s president is pushing back against.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/us/white-house-harvard-tax-status?

Trump budget would slash NASA funds, kill off Artemis’ SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget looks to end the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and Gateway space station central to NASA’s existing Artemis program — but only after a successful moon landing as the nation remains in a race with China.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/05/02/trump-budget-would-slash-nasa-funds-kill-off-artemis-sls-rocket-and-orion-spacecraft/?

ps:And who's not hurt by this? Mr Musk that's who!!!!!!!!!!

AJC exclusive poll: Majority of Georgia voters disapprove of Trump's 1st 100 days in office

A majority of registered Georgia voters say they disapprove of President Trump's policies on the economy, tariffs, NATO and DEI programs, according to a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll.

https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2025/04/30/ga-poll-trump-kemp-2025?

ps:Just Georgia? I would say more than likely most of the U.S.of A.

White House comes out with sharp spending cuts in Trump's 2026 budget plan

President Donald Trump's 2026 budget plan would slash nondefense domestic spending by $163 billion while increasing expenditures on national security, according to White House statements Friday. Read More.   How the Trump administration plans to keep tabs on 450,000 migrant kids President Donald Trump's administration is conducting a nationwide, multi-agency review of 450,000 migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents during President Joe Biden’s term. Migrant advocates are dubious of the tactics, which include dispatching Homeland Security and FBI agents to visit the children. Read More.

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Miller's influence grows

Stephen Miller is attracting buzz inside the White House as a top national security adviser candidate, five sources tell Axios' Marc Caputo.

• Why it matters: Miller is one of President Trump's longest-serving and most-trusted aides. He is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, as well as the White House homeland security adviser. And he's the brain behind the president's controversial immigration crackdown.

? Miller's name surfaced shortly after Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser yesterday, and nominated him to become the next UN ambassador.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is temporarily taking over Waltz's responsibilities. But sources familiar with his thinking say he's busy enough running the State Department.

Between the lines: Trump has a penchant for putting his faith in a small number of advisers and piling responsibilities on their plates.

• Insiders say it wouldn't be unusual for Miller to hold even more titles, just as Rubio does.

 

? Budget winners & losers

Data: White House. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Defense spending, border security and health care for veterans are the biggest winners in President Trump's budget proposal, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes from the White House framework released today. Programs focused on housing, health and climate stand to take massive cuts. The big picture: The budget reflects Trump's long-standing plans to spend more on defense and security, while slashing social programs and those seen as aligned with liberal priorities. The fiscal blueprint cuts discretionary non-defense spending by $163 billion — a 22.6% cut. Read the full budget.

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Economic Turndown for What?

View in browser

Donald Trump’s genius has always been marketing: himself, his properties, his political campaigns. But when it comes to the effects of his tariffs, the master has either lost a step or is facing a challenge that even he hasn’t yet figured out how to spin.

“Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are gonna be open,’” the president said on Wednesday. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more.” Americans, he said, will not “have to go out of our way.”

Presidents have asked Americans to sacrifice for the national good before. A few months after the United States entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt extolled those resisting the Axis overseas before making a plea to those at home. “There is one front and one battle where everyone in the United States—every man, woman, and child—is in action, and will be privileged to remain in action throughout this war. That front is right here at home, in our daily lives, and in our daily tasks,” he said. “This will require, of course, the abandonment not only of luxuries but of many other creature comforts. Every loyal American is aware of his individual responsibility.”

Three decades later, two presidents had less success asking citizens to give something up. “To help save scarce fuel in the energy crisis, drive less, heat less,” Gerald Ford implored in 1974; voters bounced him in favor of Jimmy Carter, who in 1977 told the country, “All of us must learn to waste less energy. Simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night, we could save half the current shortage of natural gas.” The speech became a symbol of Carter’s shiftless presidency, fairly or not, and he, too, served only one term. No wonder George W. Bush encouraged Americans to consume and spend after 9/11.

Trump can’t seem to decide whether he’s asking Americans to sacrifice or not. On the one hand, he’s acknowledging that tariffs will exact a cost, and he’s framing that cost as necessary for taking on China. On the other hand, he also claims that Americans won’t have to go out of their way. It’s an easily mockable claim, and no one has mocked it as effectively as Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, which ran Trump’s doll quote on yesterday’s front page with the headline “Skimp on the Barbie.”

This president is a particularly flawed messenger for this moment, because he is unlikely to personally suffer much pain from rising prices—one of the benefits of being the kind of guy who spends a lot of time in his literal gilded mansion. I’ve written before about the rhetorical agility that Trump uses to maintain his populist appeal and rail against elites, even as he is one of them. Some of Trump’s advisers lack his ability to convince ordinary Americans he’s just like them. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (Forbes estimated net worth: $3.2 billion) this week defended the tariffs by saying that the U.S. needs to onshore manufacturing. “It’s time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future,” he told CNBC. “This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here.” These sound exactly like the jobs of yesterday, only without the guaranteed pensions and strong labor unions that made them sustainable and desirable.

To Lutnick’s credit, he also wants his children to follow him into the same job—which is why his two 20-something sons are now leading Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment bank he left to join the administration. He’s the same Trump aide who wrote off concerns about a Social Security shutdown stalling checks by insisting that his own mother-in-law (whose son-in-law, once again, is worth a few billion dollars) wouldn’t be rattled to miss one.

But even Trump’s anti-elitist trick is unlikely to work so well here, because Trump promised something very different on the campaign trail. He promised to end inflation, give Americans free in vitro fertilization, and slash taxes. Instead, the retail price of basic staples such as eggs continues to rise; these tariffs represent the largest tax increase in recent U.S. history, and Trump is now warning of a straitened Christmas. He presented tariffs as a way to pay for everything and anything, such as child care, and pretended that China, not American consumers, would pay the tariffs. Perhaps it’s a good idea for Americans to cut back on cheap imported plastic goods, but coming from Trump, it’s a bait and switch.

Trump appears to be inducing an entirely voluntary economic slowdown and asking voters to bear the brunt of it, but he doesn’t give any indication that, like Bill Clinton, he feels their pain. His sliding approval on the economy shows that Americans have started to wonder why any of this is happening.

Related:

• The tariff damage that can’t be undone
• Trump’s tariffs are coming for your chili crisp.

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Trump Launches Religious Liberty Commission, Questions Church-State Divide

During the May 1, 2025, National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House, President Donald Trump introduced the Religious Liberty Commission with a striking comment: “They say, ‘Separation between church and state.’ I said, ‘All right, let’s forget about that for one time.’” He added, “Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not sure,” before telling faith leaders, “Whether there’s separation or not, you guys are in the White House where you should be, and you’re representing our country, and we’re bringing religion back to our country” .

https://religiouslibertytv.substack.com/p/trump-launches-religious-liberty?

ps:Well, well, well, I was wondering when this would come up!!!!!

Trump proposes cutting $163bn in non-defense funds and boosting military

Donald Trump is proposing huge cuts to social programmes like health and education while planning substantial spending increases on defense and the Department of Homeland Security, in a White House budget blueprint that starkly illustrates his preoccupation with projecting military strength and deterring migration.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/03/trump-budget-cuts-health-education-military

ps:And he claims he's not a "war" president??

‘Lock her up!’: Trump is determined to arrest democracy and the women who defend it

Smart, progressive women pose a serious threat to MAGA supremacy. Just ask Elon Musk, who wasted millions of dollars in Wisconsin trying to win a seat on the state Supreme Court for MAGA candidate Brad Schimel, only to watch Susan Crawford clean Schimel’s clock.

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/04/30/lock-her-up-trump-is-determined-to-arrest-democracy-and-the-women-who-defend-it/?

Threat against local public officials including in Colorado follows authoritarian playbook

Countless elected officials in Colorado must consider themselves vulnerable to personal legal liability and even arrest, based on the Trump administration’s dramatic escalation this week of immigration enforcement tactics.

https://coloradonewsline.com/2025/05/02/threat-public-officials-colorado-authoritarian-playbook/?

Is Trump good for business? Not ours.

I’m the general manager at Northstar Canoes, a small manufacturing company in Minnesota, and so far, there’s nothing about President Trump’s policies that are good for either our international or domestic business. 

https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/05/02/is-trump-good-for-business-not-ours/?

ps:Not just Minnesota, but just about every other state!! Period!!!!!

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Trump's everything aide

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Trump's decision to make Secretary of State Marco Rubio the acting national security adviser showed the MAGA faithful that the president's former rival is now among his most trusted advisers, Axios' Marc Caputo reports. Why it matters: Rubio's elevation caps a years-long evolution for the former Florida senator — from a traditional Reagan-era conservative, to a Trump Republican. And it's not just about politics and policy. ? "Marco can bro out with the POTUS. They talk UFC. They talk sports," a White House insider told Axios, comparing Rubio favorably to Vice President Vance. The intrigue: A faction of old-line Trump loyalists still deride Rubio as a "neocon," and have waged a relentless behind-the-scenes war against him to try to persuade reporters that Rubio has a shaky hold on power in the Cabinet. Thursday's move by Trump put that to bed. As secretary of state and acting national security adviser, Rubio now has powers no U.S. official has held since Henry Kissinger, who held both posts full-time under President Nixon from 1973-75. "When I have a problem, he has answers. He can fix things," Trump said of Rubio, according to an adviser. ? Zoom in: A secret to Rubio's success with Trump is his willingness to make frequent appearances on Sunday shows, where he defends the administration's controversial immigration policies and goes on offense. "Rubio hits it out of the park consistently," a White House adviser said. "He's not just on message — he makes the message. There's no flubs. He's great on TV, and that's what the boss likes," said another White House adviser. Zoom out: Rubio now wears four hats — secretary of state, acting national security adviser, USAID acting administrator and interim leader of the National Archives. And those are just his formal titles. "The president pulls him in for everything," said another White House official. "When Trump likes you and trusts you, he loads you up. Marco is loaded up." "Marco, what do you think about tariffs?" Trump asked out of the blue on one occasion, the source recalled. Rubio tried to avoid giving his opinion (which the source wouldn't disclose) but ultimately weighed in. ? Inside the room: When Trump began considering replacements for then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz after Signalgate, he was hesitant to make any changes because he didn't want to give his critics a win. But inside the White House, the wheels were in motion to replace Waltz. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles "eventually came back with Marco's name, and Trump loved the idea," said one official involved in the talks. As for Rubio? "He's deathly afraid of getting another title and more responsibility," a longtime ally joked.

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? Proposed cuts hit poorest Americans

Data: Center for American Progress. (Includes Veterans Administration medical care budget authority.) Chart: Axios Visuals The White House's budget proposes enormous cuts to federal spending — some of which, if enacted, would put millions of the poorest Americans in a bad spot, Axios' Emily Peck reports. Why it matters: The proposal is just a starting point, but it's a dark one, say advocates for the disadvantaged. ? The big picture: The budget would cut 10% from last year's level of discretionary spending — things the government does excluding mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare. But the White House wants to increase spending for border security and defense, so the bulk of the cuts are on non-defense programs, like health care, education, and housing. By the numbers: The cuts would bring non-defense discretionary spending to its lowest level in modern history — less than 2% of GDP, compared to an average 3.1% over the past 40 years, per an analysis from Bobby Kogan, a senior director of federal budget policy at the liberal Center for American Progress. The White House says the cuts are a way to move certain programs, particularly education, back to the states, and eliminate "radical gender and racial ideologies that poison the minds of Americans." ? Zoom in: Housing advocates were stunned by a nearly $27 billion cut to housing assistance for low-income Americans. Also cut: $4.5 billion in Title I education assistance, which is money meant for poorer school districts. Another hit: Trimming $4 billion by eliminating the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which assists poor people in paying for heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. It is critical in states with harsh winters — both senators from Maine have pushed for it. An administration official tells Axios in an email: "Seniors and low-income [people] also will not go without utilities as states have their own policies to help with utilities, including severe weather no-disconnection policies, lessening the need for this program at a federal level." ps:Of course and as long as his rich buddies can get there tax breaks!!!!!

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? Trump on recession fears: "Anything can happen"

"Are you worried about a recession?" NBC's Kristen Welker asks President Trump in a clip of an interview that's airing tomorrow on "Meet the Press."

• "Anything can happen. But I think we're going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country," the president says.

Welker also asks: "Are you comfortable with the country potentially dipping into a recession for a period of time if you are able to achieve your long-term goals?"

• "Look, yeah, everything is going to be OK. ... This is a transition period," Trump says.

? The other side: Ryan Petersen, CEO of logistics company Flexport, has been hitting podcasts, posting X threads and giving interviews to sound the alarm about tariffs. He told The Wall Street Journal (gift link):

"If they don't change the tariffs, it's going to be an extinction-level, asteroid-wiping-out-the-dinosaurs kind of event. Only these aren't dinosaurs. These are dynamic, healthy businesses."

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There Goes Your Neighborhood Babbling Brook. In a bid to gut environmental law protecting the nation’s wetlands, Trump’s EPA is relying on a new definition of water.

Project 2025 Is 28 Percent Complete, Thanks To Trump. The president said he had nothing to do with the right-wing plan to dismantle the federal bureaucracy. Now, Project 2025’s authors are celebrating just how much of their agenda Trump has achieved.

From Harvard To The Humane Society: How Trump Could Weaponize The IRS Against Tax-Exempt Groups. The president is eyeing rescinding the tax-exempt status of nonprofit groups he disagrees with.

How To Get Out Of Jail For (Almost) Free. Former Wells Fargo executives convicted in a $3 billion fraud scheme will get off the hook for pennies after the bank donated to Trump’s inauguration.

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? Trump spurns third-term talk

President Trump threw cold water on the notion of seeking a third term in 2028 — an idea that has gained currency in some MAGA circles despite being unconstitutional, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes.

• "This is not something I'm looking to do. I'm looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward," Trump told NBC News' Kristen Welker in a "Meet the Press" interview airing this morning.

Why it matters: Trump has teased the possibility of running again. He said in March that he wasn't "joking" about the possibility, and that "there are methods" by which he could seek another term, despite the 22nd Amendment prohibiting it.

On "Meet the Press," Trump hedged on who his successor should be, though he mentioned Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as prospects.

• "I don't want to get involved in that," Trump said when asked if he had a No. 1 choice. "I think [Vance is] a fantastic, brilliant guy. Marco is great. There's a lot of them that are great."

Other takeaways from the interview with Kristen Welker:

1. ? A dodge on whether he's required to uphold the Constitution: Trump was pressed on the administration's refusal to abide by a Supreme Court order to "facilitate" the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongly deported and sent to a prison in El Salvador.

• The president said "I don't know" when asked if citizens and non-citizens deserved due process, as provided by the Constitution. He also said "I don't know" when asked if he was required to follow the Constitution.

2. ? Tariffs may be permanent: Trump said it's possible tariffs on imported goods would be permanent, adding: "If somebody thought they were going to come off the table, why would they build in the United States?"

• Trump also told NBC that he would not give exclusions to small businesses hit by tariffs, saying they wouldn't "need it."
• The comments came just days after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce penned a letter to the administration warning that small businesses may "suffer irreparable harm" from the tariffs unless exclusions are granted.

3. ? He won't fire Fed Chair Jay Powell: Trump backed away from his threat last month to remove Powell before his term ends in 2026, saying: "No, no, no. That was a total — why would I do that? I get to replace the person in another short period of time."

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?️ Total-government deportation push

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

President Trump is going far beyond traditional mechanisms and employing a whole-of-government campaign to achieve his goal of the "largest deportation operation in American history," Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports. The IRS reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to share tax information of undocumented immigrants with authorities. The move could speed up immigration enforcement, but may push undocumented immigrants to avoid paying taxes and turn to the informal economy. Social Security is also now an immigration enforcement tool: Hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. with "temporary parole" status — granted through various Biden-era programs — have received Social Security numbers to work. DHS identified 6,300+ of them who are on the FBI terrorist watch list, or with FBI criminal records, an official told Axios. HUD has partnered with DHS to help identify undocumented immigrants living in publicly subsidized housing. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Postal Service's law enforcement arm, has quietly started to cooperate with federal immigration officials in order to find undocumented immigrants, The Washington Post reported this week: "Immigration officials are seeking photographs of the outside of envelopes and packages ... and access to the postal investigation agency's broad surveillance systems."

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Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights

President Donald Trump was circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution. The comments in a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” came as the Republican president’s efforts to quickly enact his agenda face sharper headwinds with Americans. Trump, however, made clear that he is not backing away from a to-do list that he insists the American electorate broadly supported when they elected him in November. Read more.

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America’s long history of ‘checks and balances’ is being tested by Trump like rarely before

ATLANTA (AP) — It’s what one historian calls an “elaborate, clunky machine,” one that’s been fundamental to American democracy for more than two centuries.

https://apnews.com/article/checks-balances-trump-american-democracy-constitution-979b5d303442cfa90fb0771fa177cb95?

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? Trump Sunday: Alcatraz revival, film tariffs

Aerial view of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay on July 6, 1934. Photo: U.S. Army Air Corps via Getty Images President Trump said on Truth Social last evening that he's directing federal departments to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz, California's prison-turned-tourist-attraction, "to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders." Alcatraz was closed as a prison in 1963 because it was expensive to run, and the U.S. government "found that it was more cost-effective to build a new institution" than to keep it open, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons history of "The Rock." Via Truth Social Keep reading. ? Also in Trump's last evening's Truth Social feed: tariffs on movies. The president said he's ordering administration officials to start the process of imposing a "100% Tariff" on any movie produced outside the U.S. Via Truth Social Between the lines: Trump's trade war has thus far been mostly about industry, like steel, aluminum and cars, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz writes. Escalating to intellectual property, in a world where it's common for productions to shoot in multiple countries, could create deep complications for industries that don't usually have to concern themselves with international trade policy. Keep reading.