By Todd Lassa

The Supreme Court’s 7-2 vote Saturday to temporarily stop the Trump administration from deporting another 50 Venezuelan immigrants without due process under the Alien Enemies Act should have the White House concerned. Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were the two justices siding with President Trump. The president’s appointees from his previous term, Amy Coney Barret, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch joined Chief Justice John Roberts to side with Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson in keeping what was likely planned as another flight to El Salvador to permanently imprison these 50 immigrants in the notorious CECOT facility (above), according to The New York Times.

Roberts, Thomas, Alito and the three Trump appointees, after all, last year gave the president virtually absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for any official acts in their 6-3 ruling on Trump v. United States. But SCOTUS’ temporary order offers some hope against the concern that the Trump administration’s swift attempt to fulfill the president’s key campaign promise is fueling a Constitutional crisis.

“The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,” SCOTUS said in its unsigned brief (per NYT).

Even before this order there was some concern among the pro-MAGA that Justice Coney Barrett was not a reliable pro-Trump vote on the bench, and that she and Roberts alone could subvert at least some of the president’s executive orders and actions. 

Of course, this Saturday’s order was an emergency, “stop-gap” temporary ruling, and the majority could ultimately side with the White House. But it serves as an indication that despite Trump v. United States the judiciary isn’t ready to hand over all its power to the executive quite yet.

On this page, you will find two very different takes on the Trump administration’s deportation policy, with Rich Corbett arguing for the dire need for strict immigration enforcement in the right column and Jerry Lanson arguing for the rule of law in the left column. 

Here’s your chance to comment on this critical issue. Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, so we may post your comments in the appropriate column.

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MONDAY 4/21/25

UPDATE – After first being denied access, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) (right) was able to meet with Kilmar Abrego Armando Garcia Thursday in El Salvador after the Salvadoran-born Marylander was deported by the Trump administration in March due to an ‘administrative error’ to the country's CECOT prison. Scroll down this column for more.

OUR WEEKEND UPDATE – The Supreme Court put the brakes, temporarily, on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants, early Saturday (per The New York Times). 

“The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of the court,” SCOTUS rule in an unsigned order. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito dissented in the 7-2 emergency order.

•••

Ceasefire, No Ceasefire – So much for ending the war in Ukraine on “day one.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has left a meeting over a ceasefire deal between Kyiv and the Kremlin, with French President Emmanuel Macron, with little prospect for ending the war, or at least for obtaining a ceasefire commitment with Russia. 

“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Rubio said upon departure, according to The New York Times. The Trump White House will decide “in a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks.”

No deal, deal … But a minerals deal between Kyiv and Washington is still on, according to The Kyiv Independent, which reports on a government memorandum that says Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal will visit D.C. with Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent Tuesday, April 21 to iron out technical details. The deal, which the newspaper describes as a joint reconstruction investment fund as part of an economic partnership, is to be completed by Saturday, April 26.

Upshot … So President Trump, whose State Department and special envoy first negotiated the failed ceasefire exclusively with Putin’s Kremlin gets to claim a win as the UK and European Union nations rush to fill in for the quickly retreating US assistance to Kyiv. 

•••

Fed Chair Has 12 Months – Will Jerome Powell still be chairman of the independent Federal Reserve when his term ends May 2026? President Trump clearly thinks not; that the executive who appointed Powell during his first term has the authority, the right, to fire him now. Even after naming Powell Fed chair in 2018, Trump quickly grew frustrated over the Fed’s conservatism toward lowering interest rates to boost Trump’s economy. 

With his well-documented naming of “yes-men” (and women) loyalists up and down the federal government, Trump has “for months privately discussed firing Fed Chair Powell,” according to The Wall Street Journal. 

But can he? The big debate in the business press is whether or not the president has the right, the authority. As the Fed digs in and potentially raises interest rates rather than lowering them in coming months as Trump’s tariff policy fuels inflation, we are almost certainly about to find out. 

Count on this … So long as the tension between inflation from tariffs and Fed interest rate policy continues as economists expect, Trump will test that known unknown of whether he has that authority.

•••

The CECOT Files – Headline in The New York Times Thursday evening reads, “Maryland Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Man in El Salvador.” 

Here’s the thing: Headlines are limited by space, but Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran who was living in Maryland when he was deported in what the Trump administration calls an “administrative mistake” is one of more than 260 Salvadorans and Venezuelans rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement without due process in March and flown to the prison, defying a federal judge’s order to turn the airplanes around.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told NPR’s All Things Considered Thursday he was turned away from CECOT by Salvadoran soldiers about three kilometers short of the prison but was later allowed to meet with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia for lunch in a hotel lobby. 

“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy,” said President/Cool Dictator Nayib Bukele, whose government has received $6 million, or $25,000 a head to imprison the immigrants flown out of the United States, “he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody (per NYT).

[60 Minutes reported April 6^th that a review of criminal records found that 179 of 238 Venezuelans among those flown to CECOT had no criminal arrests, let alone convictions.]

Van Hollen said he called Abrego Garcia’s wife “to pass along his message of love.”

Meanwhile … The Trump White House continues to claim that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member and that even his wife and children back in Maryland are safer with him in a foreign prison, as the president has floated the idea of flying “violent” criminals who are American citizens to CECOT.  

--TL

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THURSDAY 4/17/25

Fed Fight – President Trump is amping up the pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, suggesting the chairman’s term should end before it’s over in May 2026. This is, as you may have guessed, about the tariffs.

“Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Trump harumphed on social media Thursday morning, according to The Wall Street Journal. Powell “is always TOO LATE AND WRONG!” 

The president claimed, without evidence, that the US is taking in a lot of money from the tariffs.

Powell on Wednesday told the Economic Club of Chicago the Fed needs to make sure any price increases from tariffs do not lead to continuing inflationary pressures. 

“We’re never going to be influenced by any political pressure,” Powell said. “People can say whatever they want. That’s fine. That’s not a problem. But we will do what we do strictly without consideration of politics or any other extraneous factors.”

•••

Security for Peace – Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are on their way to Paris to join with European and Ukrainian officials to talk security guarantees for Ukraine, per The Kyiv Independent. This time, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who opposes such security guarantees for the country he invaded three years ago, is not in on the discussions.

Ahead of Rubio and Witkoff’s arrival, Ukraine’s head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said Ukrainian and European officials “exchanged views on the next steps toward achieving a just and lasting peace.” Such steps include implementing a ceasefire, a reassurance force and effective security architecture for Ukraine.

Meanwhile … Rubio and his aides have shuttered the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub, which has tracked global disinformation from such foreign actors as Russia, China and Iran, The New York Times reports. Closing the office had been in the works pretty much since the beginning of Trump 47, as the State Department in March cancelled 80 contractors for it. Another 40 or so employees of the Hub were placed on paid leave as of Wednesday.

--TL

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Judge Orders Expedited Discovery

WEDNESDAY 4/16/25

UPDATE: Judge James E. Boasberg has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for deportation flights of mostly Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison (per The New York Times). The case is now almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court.

Boasberg, judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia has attempted in vain to determine from administration officials whether White House officials were deliberate in ignoring the judge’s order to turn two airplanes carrying migrants around and back to the US before reaching El Salvador.

“The court does not reach such conclusions lightly or hastily,” Boasberg wrote in his 46-page opinion. “Indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.”

Saving Abrego Garcia – US District Judge Paula Xinis Tuesday ordered an expedited discovery process to determine what the federal government has and has not done to return to Maryland, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison for terrorists, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The Trump administration admits it made an “administrative error” in throwing in Albrego Garcia with some 260 alleged “gangsters” in two flights to the prison, but continues to claim, without providing evidence, that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. 

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say he has no criminal record.

“It is a fact now, of this record: Every day he is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm,” Xinis said from the bench (per NPR). 

Judge Xinis’ expedited discovery directs attorneys for the Justice Department and for Abrego Garcia to conduct depositions within one week of Joseph Mazzaro, acting general counsel and Robert Cerna, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director. 

The case is most certainly headed back to the US Supreme Court, which already has ruled 9-0 that the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the US.

Senator intervenes … Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is off to meet Salvadoran President Nayib “World’s Coolest Dictator” Bukele this week to discuss return of Alberto Garcia, according to the senator’s website. 

•••

MTG Blames Dems for Disrupted Town Hall – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (D-GA) blames Democrats for disrupting her town hall in Cobb County, Georgia, Tuesday, calling the incident “selfish”, The Hill reports. Such opinions, she said, are for the voting booth. 

At least six protestors were removed from the town hall, three of which were arrested and two of those stun-gunned. 

“I’m not intimidated by the Democrats who tried to shut down my town hall tonight,” MTG said.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 4/16/25

TUESDAY 4/15/25

No Return –Just in time for baseball season, it was reminiscent of the century-old “Who’s On First?” routine. Think Abbot & Costello & Orbán. First, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s CECOT prison for terrorists, as the White House admits he was transferred there by mistake. 

President Trump, seen above meeting in the Oval Office Monday with El Salvador’s “self-styled world’s coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele – a description that so far Trump’s people have not challenged – told reporters that El Salvador first has to release Garcia. Trump passed the issue on to US Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him,” Bondi said. “That’s not up to us. That’s not up to us. If they want to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”

To which Bukele replied (this exchange per The Atlantic); “I hope you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States. That is preposterous.”

It should be noted that by admitting Garcia, who has lived in Maryland since 2011, was transferred to CECOT by mistake, there is no evidence he is a terrorist or a gang member, though the White House now seems to want us to believe he is, by repeating with no proof that he is a gang member. It also should be noted that the US is paying El Salvador to imprison 261 alleged gangsters, most from Venezuela, there. 

Who’s next? … Trump suggested to Bukele that “home-growns are next,” though he subsequently clarified that to mean US citizens guilty of the most violent crimes, like pushing commuters in front of approaching New York subway trains. 

Who’s guilty? … It must be noted that Trump has had a tenuous grip of the concept of due process going back at least to 1989, when he called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five before they went to trial (they were exonerated in 2002) in full-page ads placed in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and Newsday. 

Constitutional crisis … Trump may not be the “world’s coolest dictator,” but he is ignoring due process while interpreting – pardon the use of this term – liberally SCOTUS’ ruling on Garcia’s return.

Satirist’s take … “I did not think he would get this authoritarian this fast,” host Jon Stewart said of Trump on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show Monday night.

Crisis? … Agree? Disagree? that the Trump White House has gone full-authoritarian and that we are in a constitutional crisis? Email your thoughts to editors@thehustings.news.

•••

Fed Cuts Off Harvard – The Trump administration Monday night froze more than $2.2 billion in federal funds to Harvard University, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, for refusing to eliminate DEI, failing to give merit-based admissions priority over race-based considerations and for being “supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”

Read contributing pundit Jerry Lanson’s commentary, “Harvard Takes a Stand” in the left column.

--TL

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MONDAY 4/14/25

'World's Coolest Dictator' Visits Trump White House

The ‘self-styled world’s coolest dictator,’ El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, Monday becomes the first Latin American leader to visit President Trump at the White House, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. This photo is from a slick video Bukele’s administration posted on Elon Musk’s X-Twitter of the Trump administration’s deportation and imprisonment of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan and Salvadoran ‘gang members’ to El Salvador’s high-tech CECOT gulag, a ‘terrorism detention center.’

•••

Trade War Escalates – China has suspended export – to anywhere globally -- of a “wide range” of critical minerals and magnets, The New York Times reports, threatening to choke off supplies necessary for the automotive, aerospace, semiconductor and military contractor industries. Beijing is drafting a new regulatory system as part of its official retaliation for President Trump’s April 2 tariffs.

This comes after Trump pulled back on 145% tariffs on Chinese goods for smartphones, computers, semiconductors and other electronics in a rule issued late last Friday. 

For now … The White House’s delay Friday is, indeed, only a delay, Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick told ABC News’ This WeekSunday; New, special semiconductor tariffs will come in “a month or two.” [READ: Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s take, “This is Strategy?” in the right column.]

“All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored,” Lutnick told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels – we need to have these things made in America.”

•••

Russia Escalates War on Ukraine – Russia is “mocking” the 30-day ceasefire negotiated between the Trump administration and Ukraine -- but not Russia – Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish radio Monday according to The Kyiv Independent. Sikorski condemned Russia’s recent deadly attacks on Ukraine, including missiles on the city of Sumy that killed at least 34 and injured 119, and an April 4 attack on Kryvyi Rih that killed 20, including nine children, and injured more than 70. 

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged President Trump to visit his country and talk to its citizens and soldiers.

“You think you understand” Russia’s war against Ukraine (which Trump promised to end on his first day in office), Zelenskyy told Scott Pelley. “Look, and then let’s move with a plan to end the war.”

•••

Arson on Penn Governor’s Mansion – Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were evacuated from the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion early Sunday morning after a man scaled the property’s fence and ignited fires in the piano room and kitchen, LNP/Lancaster Online reports. State police have charged Cody A. Balmer, 38, with criminal homicide, aggravated arson, burglary and five related offenses after he allegedly started the fires with two beer bottle Molotov cocktails. Balmer told police he attempted the fires out of hatred for the Democratic governor and said he had planned to attack Shapiro with a sledgehammer.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 4/14/25

<<<This is not a debate.>>> Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett, in the right column, responds to Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary from last week, “Trump Trashes Trust” and left-column contributors’ “About Those Tariffs” with his column supporting the White House tariff policy. Meanwhile, Macaulay finds himself in the left column, where he laments lack of Democratic Party leadership in resisting Trump. Submit your own COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news.

US-China Tariffs Settle In – China raised its tariffs on US imports to 125% as the Trump White House clarified that its total tariff level on Chinese imports is 145%, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Beijing says that’s enough: “Even if the US continues to impose higher tariffs, it would be economically meaningless and would become a joke in the history of the world economy,” China’s tariff commission said in a statement. 

There is much truth to that, if only because China is largely an export nation – the basic reason for the Trump White House’s aggressive tariff policy on the country to begin with – selling us computer semiconductors, “fast fashion” and something like 60% of everything sold at Walmart. 

Bonds. Treasury bonds … Meanwhile, APM’s Marketplace Morning Edition reports that President Trump’s clawback on reciprocal tariffs Wednesday, which for an afternoon reversed Wall Street’s steep slide in share values, had as much to do with concern over bond values as for stock values. Usually, bond values rise when stock prices fall, but after Trump’s initial tariff announcement last week, both stocks and bonds took a dive, indicating investors were losing confidence in US Treasury bonds.

Uh oh, Canada … WSJ further reports that Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, will counter “unjustified” US tariffs of 25% on steel, aluminum – make that “aluminium” – and autos and inflict “maximum pain.” The puck drops here.

•••

‘Big, Beautiful,’ Complicated – The House passed the blueprint, already approved by the Senate, for President Trump’s all-in-one “big, beautiful budget” bill Thursday on a knife’s-edge 216-214 vote, with Republican Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana and Thomas Massie of Kentucky joining all Democrats in opposition (per Politico). Now comes the hard part: Finding at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts while offsetting the 2017 Trump tax cuts and other White House priorities, without worrying Social Security and Medicare recipients. 

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, acknowledged to reporters that his Republican colleagues are divided over how to achieve all the above, according to The Hill.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 4/11/25

Commentary by Jim McCraw

I didn’t expect very much. After all, The Villages, the world’s largest retirement community, with some 150,00 people (including the added developments of Middleton and Eastport), located in central Florida, is about as Republican as you can find anywhere, with a huge military, police, fire, EMT and nursing population in Republican Ron DeSantis’ state, represented by Republicans Rick Scott and Ashley Moody in the Senate and Daniel Webster in the House. Trumpians all.

But I was wrong. Old Mill Run, Morse Boulevard, and Stillwater Trail, three major arteries in the Lake Sumter Landing part of The Villages, were, by 1 p.m. Saturday, mobbed with 5,000 sign-carrying, t-shirt-wearing Hands Off! protesters of every political stripe, probably because of Trump’s threats to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration health system.

Sumter County sheriffs cruised through the area every 10 minutes or so just to show a presence that wasn’t needed. Sympathetic drivers honked their horns, waved their arms out their car windows, showed thumbs-up and/or camera phones all afternoon long. As I roamed around the area, I saw more and more truly clever and smartass t-shirts and homemade signs, and I felt a bit like I was back in Washington, D.C. in 1970 when Vietnam was raging and we were all pissed off. It felt really good, really inspiring to see so many concerned citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. Yes, there was one guy circling in an SUV with Trump World signs and American flags on it, but all he got was The Finger every time he came by. What a day. What a downright historic day.

McCraw is a contributing pundit for The Hustings. He lives in The Villages, Florida.

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TUESDAY 4/8/25

The Consumer Price Index was -0.1% for March month-over-month, for an annual rate of 2.4%, easing from February’s 2.8%. The Labor Department credits lower gas prices last month for much of the decrease; Its CPI for all items less food and energy was 2.8%. [Bureau of Labor Statistics chart]

THURSDAY 4/10/25

<<<In the left column: Contributing Pundit Jim McCraw on a successful Hands Off! rally at The Villages, Florida. [PHOTO: Jim McCraw]

In the right column: Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay on TikTok>>>

Don’t miss The Gray Area: Contributing Editor Charles Dervarics analysis of the Trump Tariffs.

•••

UPDATE: There doesn't have to be a morning after. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 40,000 points early Thursday, off 832.69 points, or nearly 2% just before 10:30 a.m. ET. The more volatile, tech-heavy NASDAQ was down more than 3%.

Turns Out Wall Street Likes Free Trade – The Dow Jones Industrial Averages ended Wednesday up 2,963 points, or +7.87%, to 40,608.45 as the tech-heavy NASDAQ finished +12.16%.

•••

Tariffick or Tarrifying – The Trump White House will hold international court the next 90 days as trade representatives come to Washington to negotiate tariffs downward. Meanwhile, the base tariff of 10%, tariffs of 25% on import autos and a 125% tariff on – attention, Walmart shoppers – all Chinese goods remain. 

C’mon, let’s get yippy … President Trump told reporters Wednesday he suspended his reciprocal tariffs just hours after they kicked in because people were getting “yippy.” Presumably, this includes people on Wall Street, where the tariffs announced last week sent stock prices on a steep slide. 

Down-Schiff … Democrats in Congress will begin investigating Trump’s Truth Social post hours ahead of his tariff-suspension announcement that it’s a good time to, essentially, get over your yips and start buying shares at bargain prices, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Wednesday (per Newsweek).

Trump’s Truth Social post read, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY! DJT.” 

Schiff posted a video on X-Twitter saying, “So the question is between that tweet and Donald Trump’s announcement that he was reducing the tariffs on most other nations apart from China, the question is who knew what the president was gonna do and did people around the president trade stock knowing the incredible gyrations the market was going to see?”

•••

Trump Targets His Own (Ex-) Men – President Trump has issued directives to his Justice Department to investigate his first administraiton’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency chief, Christopher Krebs, and former senior Homeland Security department official Miles Taylor, Politico reports. 

The directive to scrutinize Krebs reads, in part, that he “is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his Government authority.” The Trump White House accuses Krebs of suppressing conservative viewpoints and “covertly worked to blind the American public” about the controversy around Hunter Biden’s laptop, “falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen,” and “skewed the bona fide debate about COVID-19 by attempting to discredit widely shared views that ran contrary to CISA’s favored perspective.”

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 4/9/25

UPDATE: Stocks Surge on 90-Day Tariff Delay -- Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent Wednesday announced a 90-day delay on tariffs for most countries, while increasing the US tariff on China to 125%, The Associated Press reports. As of 2 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2,503 points, or +6.65%, to 40,148.36. The tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 9.6%.

They’re Called 'Reciprocal Tariffs' – And China has raised its tariffs on US imports from 34% to 84%, matching President Trump’s latest tariff on Chinese goods. Except … Trump has retaliated on the retaliation – yes, that’s a trade war – by raising tariffs on China to 104%, The Wall Street Journal reports. Beijing’s 84% tariff is to take effect Thursday.

Does it matter?... This is a sort of easy one between Trump and Xi Jingping. China doesn’t let many US imports in, with companies like Apple and General Motors having major production capabilities there. GM produces in China for Chinese consumers, for example, where its sales have fallen precipitously in the last decade as the country boosts its own, home-grown auto industry. 

This will hurt … But American consumers will feel the pinch with these US and Chinese tariffs hitting electronics, home goods and apparel hard, Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told NPR’s Morning Edition.

Semiconductor exemption … Apple and other such tech companies that source semiconductors from China are alright, for now, as Trump carved out an exemption for Chinese-sourced semiconductors last week, according to WIRED. However, three days after the initial relief from this carve-out, the White House published a list of the exemptions that does not include many types of chip-related goods.

This may help … About 70 countries have approached the White House to begin negotiations. This means Trump will get exactly what he wants from the tariffs; World leaders coming to him for these negotiations, giving him the chance to display his Art of the Deal chops. 

--TL

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Negotiating Tariffs?

TUESDAY 4/8/25

UPDATE II: Poof. At the end of the day, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent's trial balloon about negotiating downward the Trump White House's stiff tariffs did not claim back any of the value lost from the stock market slide of the past half-week. After a healthy rally Tuesday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped into the red by mid-afternoon, closing at 37,645.59 points, off 320.01, or -0.84%. Meanwhile, the White House says tariffs of 104% on Chinese goods are set to take effect after midnight Tuesday.

UPDATE: Bargain-hunting or bullish, again? As of 12:15 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 875.25 points, or 2.31%, to 38,840.45. The tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 2.28%.

China’s Not Negotiating – President Trump says he will add another 50% tariff on Chinese imports if Beijing doesn’t drop plans to retaliate against extra US levies. Beijing responded thusly, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing the country’s Commerce Ministry: “If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

But maybe Trump is … US stock futures and global equities look to claw back ground lost in the last three trading days after Trump signaled to reporters, as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, that he is willing to discuss lower tariffs with Japan, Israel and other countries, according to the WSJ. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent indicated he would give Japan priority in trade talks.

Trump says he will not suspend tariffs while negotiating over them, however.

•••

Alien Enemies On, for Now – The Supreme Court issued a narrow procedural ruling Monday night that allows the Trump administration to continue deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The ruling overturns, for now, a lower court ruling that would have put a temporary stop to the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. CBS News’ 60 Minutes reported Sunday that 179 of 238 Venezuelans flown to CECOT three weeks ago have no criminal records nor even of criminal arrests.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 4/8/25