Is This How It Ends? – We’ve been predicting in our Substack newsletter that Elon Musk will remain a close confidant of President Trump long after the X-Twitter owner steps down from DOGE. But on that very same X-Twitter early Monday, Musk ran a video of conservative hero-economist Milton Friedman describing the parts and materials from different countries that combined to produce his pencil. “People cooperated to make this pencil who do not speak the same language,” Friedman says in the video.
Read: Contributing Editor Charles Dervarics’ analysis of the Trump tariffs in The Gray Area.
Musk v. Navarro – A growing rift between the Trump administration and DOGEmaster Elon Musk appeared over the weekend, as the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing and onetime failed San Diego anti-growth politician Peter Navarro defended the tariffs. Musk had spoken on Zoom with Italy League leader Matteo Salvini over the weekend in which the DOGE chief said he hopes for “a very close, stronger partnership” with Europe for a zero-tariff, free trade zone between the US and the European Union (Tesla has a Gigafactory in Germany’s Berlin-Brandenburg).
Navarro, meanwhile, continues to defend the tariffs as a means of paying for tax cuts, plus zero-tax on tips, zero-tax on overtime and zero-tax on Social Security. An X-Twitter commentator named “Insurrection Barbie” defended Navarro as a trade and manufacturing advisor with a Harvard PhD in economics, according to The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, who noted that Musk tweeted back, “A PhD in economics from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.” (Musk, like President Trump, earned a degree from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, according to his Wikipedia entry.)
Meanwhile … As tariffs kicked in Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down about 900 points (though it then seesawed between positive and negative territory all morning). Mornings With Maria eponymous host Bartiromo, who carried a lot of water for the Trump campaign and its economic agenda last year, acknowledged Monday the potential for a recession coming off the tariffs.
The investment firm Goldman Sachs says the probability for a recession is now 45%, up last week from 35%, according to U.S. News & World Report. It was the second hike in a week, up from an initial probability of 20%.
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It Is Happening Here – Examining internal US government documents, CBS News 60 Minutes says 75% of 238 Venezuelans arrested and flown to a notorious prison in El Salvador have no criminal records, despite accusations of gang membership by the Trump White House’s Justice Department. The TV newsmagazine reports it could not find criminal records for 179 of the 238 men arrested and flown to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center megaprison, or CECOT, while 22% have non-violent criminal records in the US or elsewhere and the records of the remaining 3% are uncertain.
Those arrested and being held in CECOT include a makeup artist, a soccer player and a food delivery driver, according to the report.
Federal Judge James Boasberg on March 15 ordered two airplanes transporting the Venezuelan prisoners to return to the US, but the Justice Department ignored the order. The DOJ has repeatedly stonewalled Boasberg over his demands for an explanation on the timing of the flights vs. his order for them to return.
Meanwhile … Last week, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) introduced a resolution that calls for firing Boasberg, according to Newsweek. Firing the judge would avoid the need for impeachment but would require an unobtainable two-thirds vote in the House.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa