"Ultimate Grifter": Bob Kuttner on How Trump Could Drop His Tariffs & Take Credit for Saving Economy
President Trump is facing increasing criticism from big businesses over his decision to launch a global trade war. On Monday, CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot met with Trump at the White House to warn about Trump’s trade policies. A day later, Trump signaled he is open to substantially lowering tariffs on China. Trump has also toned down his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom he had previously threatened to fire. This all comes as global stock markets remain in turmoil over Trump’s trade policies. *The Wall Street Journal* reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average is headed for its worst April performance since the Great Depression. “This is classic Trump,” says Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of *The American Prospect*. “You create a crisis. Then you say, 'Well, actually, I'm going to back off,’ and the crisis is over. And you end up with yourself and the country worse than before you started.”
As Trump Attacks CBS, Maria Ressa Warns He Is Following Philippine Model to Crack Down on Free Press
As the Trump administration goes after universities, law firms and more, some argue that the free press will eventually become a target. Trump’s attacks on the press have already begun, with the president filing a number of baseless lawsuits against organizations like ABC and CBS, including a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over how the network edited an interview with Kamala Harris last year on *60 Minutes*. The White House has also banned the Associated Press from covering some presidential events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. “I didn’t want to be an activist, but when it’s a battle for facts, journalism is activism,” warns Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, whose new site Rappler faced attacks from former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. We also speak with *The American Prospect* editor Robert Kuttner, who has a new piece headlined “Is the Press Next?”
Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa Remembers Pope Francis for Progressive Views & Embracing the Global South
Thousands of mourners are lining up at the Vatican, where Pope Francis’s body is lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. His funeral will be on Saturday. In May of 2024, Pope Francis gathered 30 Nobel Peace laureates to the Vatican in a roundtable including our guest, Maria Ressa, who was awarded the prize for defending the free press in the Philippines. “He changed the church by changing the people,” says Ressa. “He moved it away from a Eurocentric kind of Global North view, and he brought in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/24/pope_francis_maria_resa
Headlines for April 22, 2025
House Democrats Visit El Salvador to Press for Release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Relatives Fight U.S. Attempts to Transfer Venezuelan Immigrants to El Salvador Prison, ICE Denies Mahmoud Khalil’s Request to Join His Wife for Birth of Their First Child, “The War Must Stop”: Detained Palestinian Green Card Holder Mohsen Mahdawi Calls for End to Gaza War, Judge Orders Reinstatement of Canceled Visas for 133 Foreign Students, UNRWA Chief Condemns Israel’s Use of Aid to Gaza as a “Bargaining Chip and a Weapon of War”, Survivors Recount RSF Massacre on Zamzam Camp for Displaced Sudanese, Putin Floats Direct Ceasefire Talks with Zelensky Amid Continued Russian Attacks, Latest U.S. Airstrikes Hit Yemen’s Capital, Marib Governorate and Kamaran Island, Hegseth Blames Press Over Reports of Second Signal Chat in Which He Shared War Plans with Family, White House HHS Cuts Could Will Slash Budget by 40%, Eliminate Key Programs, Harvard Sues Trump Admin for Freezing Federal Funds, Trump Admin to Start
Garnishing Wages on Defaulted Student Loans Next Month, Trump Administration Mulls “Perks” to Boost Birth Rate While Attacking Medicaid, Child Care, Vatican Sets Saturday Funeral for Pope Francis, Judge Sides with 6 Plaintiffs Challenging Trump’s Anti-Trans Passport Rules, Protesters in London Decry Top Court’s Ruling Attacking Trans and Nonbinary Community
Remembering Pope Francis on Earth Day: How He Linked Capitalism, Climate & Catholicism
As the Vatican prepares the funeral for Pope Francis and church leaders begin to consider his replacement, we look at the late pontiff’s environmental legacy. Pope Francis frequently called for action on the climate crisis and urged his followers to be good stewards of the Earth. He also openly criticized the role of wealthy nations and capitalism in causing the climate crisis.
“He brought together the riches of Christian and Catholic tradition to bear with the prophetic work of social movements around the world in confronting a global crisis,” says Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Schneider is also a contributing writer at *America*, a national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Jesuits, where he has been covering Catholic engagement with climate change and the economy.
Pope Francis argued that “our relationship with the Earth depends on justice among people, and that in order to address this environmental crisis, we need to also address the crisis of disposability, of treating not only the planet, but each other, as disposable,” says Schneider.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/22/pope_francis_vatican_climate_crisis
"The Doxxing-to-Deportation Pipeline": Update on Abduction & Jailing of Tufts Student Rümeysa Öztürk
A federal judge has ordered Rümeysa Öztürk to be transferred to Vermont as she seeks to challenge what her lawyers call her “unconstitutional detention” in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Öztürk is a Turkish national and a Tufts University Ph.D. student whose abduction off the streets by plainclothes U.S. agents was caught on camera, one of the most controversial examples of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian international students. She was targeted after co-authoring an opinion piece for the Tufts student newspaper critical of the school’s response to Gaza protests. Last week, an immigration judge denied bond for Öztürk, declaring her to be a potential “danger to the community.” Meanwhile, *The Washington Post* reports the State Department found no evidence linking Rümeysa Öztürk to antisemitic activities or public statements in support of terrorism, as the administration has claimed.
For more, we speak with Mudassar Toppa, part of Öztürk’s legal team and a staff attorney at CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at CUNY School of Law. “In this case, the government was clear it was intending to abduct Ms. Öztürk. They didn’t want her to know that her visa was revoked, and four days later, they did exactly what they planned and abducted her in broad daylight,” says Toppa.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/22/rumeysa_ozturk_vermont_ice_tufts
Vijay Prashad: Historic 1955 Anti-Colonial Bandung Conference Inspired New Era in Global South
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, when 29 nations from Asia and Africa gathered in Indonesia for a historic anti-colonial conference that was meant to chart a new path for developing countries amid a tide of decolonization sweeping the globe. The 1955 Bandung Conference announced the arrival on the world stage of peoples from the Global South, and it marked the birth of what would later become the Non-Aligned Movement at the height of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Key nations participating included China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Burma and Vietnam. The conference was hosted by Indonesian President Sukarno, a major anti-imperialist figure who would later be overthrown in a U.S.-backed coup.
“They all gathered together because they understood their unity was very important, not only to create a new trade and development order — that was not the only part — but also to fight for peace,” says author and journalist Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental think tank. “Bandung represented hope for hundreds of millions of people around the planet in 1955.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/22/1955_bandung_conference
Headlines for April 18, 2025
U.S. Airstrikes on Yemen Kill at Least 58, Injure Over 100 Others, Palestinian Photojournalist Fatma Hassona Killed with Family in Israeli Attack, Hamas Rejects Interim Israeli Truce Proposals, Seeks Comprehensive and Full End to War, ICC Demands Hungary Justify Its Failure to Act on Netanyahu Arrest Warrant, Sen. Van Hollen Meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador as Legal Defeats Mount for Trump, New Group of Immigrants Threatened with Removal Under Contested Wartime Act, SCOTUS to Hear Arguments in Trump’s Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship, U.S.-Born Man Arrested Under Florida’s Latest Anti-Immigrant Law After Crossing State Lines, ICE Signs $30 Million Deal with Palantir as It Expands Mass Surveillance of Immigrants, Zohran Mamdani Joins NYC Jewish Community to Say “No Fascists, No Pharaohs” at Passover Action, Boston Jews Call for Release of Rümeysa Öztürk After Judge Denies Bond to Abducted Student, Trump Escalates Attacks on Harvard, Targeting International Students,
“The Fight to Win All Fights”: Students and Faculty Protest Trump Crackdown on Schools, U.S. Judge Rules Google Illegally Operates Online Ad Monopoly, Trump Threatens to Kick Out Federal Reserve Chair Powell, New Rule Threatens Endangered Species by Allowing Industry to Destroy Protected Habitats, Rubio Says U.S. Will Determine in “A Matter of Days” If It Should “Move On” from Ukraine War, Florida Son of a Sheriff’s Deputy Uses Mom’s Service Gun to Kill 2 People in Campus Mass Shooting, Grand Jury Indicts Luigi Mangione; Charge Could Lead to Death Sentence
"Absolute Nonsense": As Measles Cases Soar & Kids Die, Expert Slams RFK Jr. on Vaccine-Autism Link
“These were otherwise healthy school-age children who didn’t have to die.” We speak to the world-renowned pediatrician, virologist and vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez, about the dangerous anti-vaccine agenda of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Amid a growing number of measles cases in the United States, RFK Jr. has promoted skepticism of the efficacy of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. At least two unvaccinated children have died from measles, a highly contagious disease that had been effectively eliminated in the U.S. in the past few decades. Hotez, the father of a child on the autism spectrum, also debunks RFK Jr.’s claims that vaccines are linked to autism, and criticizes his “deeply offensive” statements about people living with autism. Evoking eugenic beliefs, the HHS secretary, who now holds the power to determine healthcare policy in the United States, “shows this consistent lack of intellectual curiosity, this kind
of simplistic way of thinking and talking about autism,” says Hotez.
Cannes Selects Film on Gaza Photographer Fatma Hassona; A Day Later, She's Killed in Israeli Strike
Fatma Hassona, the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and subject of the upcoming documentary film *Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk*, was killed with her family Wednesday by an Israeli missile that targeted her building in northern Gaza. The strike occurred just one day after she learned that the film centered around her life and work had been selected to premiere at the ACID Cannes 2025 film festival. Director Sepideh Farsi remembers Hassona for her talent, integrity and hope. “I can’t tell you how devastated I am,” says Farsi. She shares that Hassona had joyfully accepted the invitation to Cannes but had emphasized her desire to return to Gaza and remain on her family’s land. Farsi adds that there is a chance that Hassona’s building had been targeted, “given the high number of journalists and photographers in Gaza who have been killed by the Israeli army.” In tribute to Hassona’s work, we play the trailer to *Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk* and share a selection of her
photography and poetry.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/18/fatma_hassona_killed_sepideh_farsi_documentary
Headlines for April 16, 2025
Judge Overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Case Considers Contempt Charges for U.S. Officials, Judge Blocks Trump’s Order Ending Protections for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans & Venezuelans, “Do Not Attempt to Remain in the United States”: CBP Orders U.S. Citizens to “Self-Deport”, Video Shows Violent Arrest of Venezuelan Man by Federal Agents Who Wounded Bystander, Republicans Face Protests over Trump’s Agenda at Raucous Town Hall Meetings, Israeli War Chief Refuses Calls to End Gaza Siege, U.S. Envoy Says Iran Must Completely End Uranium Enrichment , Trump Escalates Trade War, Saying China Now Faces 245% Tariff, NATO Leader Pledges Support to Kyiv as Trump Blames Ukraine, Not Russia, for Invasion, White House Restricts Access to Wire Service Reporters Including AP and Reuters , Russian Journalists Sentenced to 5+ Years in Prison for “Extremism”, Hungary Amends Constitution to Ban LGBTQ+ Pride Events , U.K. High Court Ruling Excludes Trans Women from Equality Act Protections, U.S.
Threatens Retaliation as U.N. Shipping Agency Reaches Deal to Curb Greenhouse Gases, Climate Activists Demand Protections for Indigenous Communities Ahead of COP30 Summit
Mohsen Mahdawi's Abduction "Should Terrify" Us, Says VT Rep. Balint, Whose Grandfather Was Killed in Holocaust
The Trump administration is now seeking to deport Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who is being held in a prison in northwest Vermont. He was detained by Homeland Security agents when he went to an immigration services center to take a civics test that is the final step in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen. Mahdawi moved to Vermont from the West Bank in 2014 and has been a legal permanent resident, or green card holder, since 2015.
All three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation are calling for Mahdawi’s release, including Congressmember Becca Balint. “This should terrify every single person living in this country, regardless of your citizenship status,” says Balint. “This is Trump creating his own army of brownshirts right here in our country.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/16/mohsen_mahdawi_becca_balint_ice
Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: Breaking Up Meta's Monopoly Would Improve Service, Safety
In one of its first major actions under the Trump administration, the Federal Trade Commission is arguing Meta has an illegal monopoly in social media and should be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Monday as the highly anticipated antitrust trial kicked off in Washington, D.C. If Meta loses the trial, it could be forced to sell off those platforms. “We’ve let one company, one man, influence the information environment for the world,” says Frances Haugen, former Facebook employee and whistleblower.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/16/frances_haugen_facebook_meta_antitrust
"Unquestionably Unconstitutional": Harvard Law Prof Slams Cuts as School Rejects Trump Demands
Harvard University has pushed back as President Trump ramps up his attacks on higher education. After Harvard rejected demands by the Trump administration to eliminate all DEI initiatives and further crack down on Palestinian rights protests, including reporting international students to federal authorities, the Trump administration said it’s freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard. University President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the school community on Monday, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
“This is an effort to try to take over the ideological agenda of the country by taking over universities,” says Andrew Manuel Crespo, professor at Harvard Law School and general counsel of the Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Headlines for April 11, 2025
China Hikes Up Tariffs Against U.S. to 125% Amid Escalating Trade War, Democrats to Investigate Trump Allies for Insider Trading over Tariffs, SCOTUS Orders Trump Admin to Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to U.S. from El Salvador’s CECOT Prison, Avelo Airlines Faces Protests, Boycotts After Agreeing to Use Planes for Deportations, U.S. Admits It’s Seeking to Deport Mahmoud Khalil for His Beliefs Ahead of Key Ruling, Israel Kills More Palestinians in Gaza, Including Children, as It Presses Ahead with Rafah Seizure, Ahmad Manasra, Jailed by Israel When He Was 13, Freed After Decade Behind Bars, Activists Protest Travis Air Base; Greenpeace UK Activists Dye U.S. Embassy Pond Blood Red, Sudan Tells World Court the UAE Is Abetting Genocide as Civil War Nears 2nd Anniversary, Ukraine’s Allies Gather to Rally Military Support for Kyiv Amid Stalled Ceasefire, House GOP Passes Voter ID Bill That Critics Say Would Disenfranchise Millions, “Guilty of Treason”: Trump Orders DOJ Probe into Two Former
Officials Who Criticized Him, Democrats Attempt to Push Elon Musk Out of Trump Administration by May 30, House GOP Passes Budget Bill to Slash Federal Spending and Taxes on the Wealthy, Death Toll in Dominican Republic Nightclub Disaster Rises to 221, New Zealand Lawmakers Reject Bill to Roll Back Māori Rights
Supreme Court Orders U.S. to “Facilitate” Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, after the Maryland resident was denied due process rights and deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. But the court remains vague on how exactly this would happen, and the Trump administration has claimed it has no way of ensuring his safe return. Elsewhere, a federal immigration judge in Louisiana is set to rule today on whether the Trump administration has grounds to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States who was involved in a campus protest at Columbia University. Ahead of today’s ruling, Secretary of State Marco Rubio filed a short memo that concedes Khalil has no criminal history, and argues he should be deported as part of U.S. efforts to combat antisemitism. We speak to attorney Ramzi Kassem, who is part of Khalil’s legal team, about the cases of Abrego Garcia and Khalil. Kassem says the
Supreme Court decision on Abrego Garcia’s case is “a step in the right direction and will hopefully lead to his return home.”
Michigan Lawyer Detained at Detroit Airport, Phone Seized; He Represents Pro-Palestine Protester
A lawyer who represents a pro-Palestinian student protester in Michigan was detained Sunday at the Detroit Metro Airport on his way back from a family vacation. Dearborn attorney Amir Makled was separated from his wife and children and asked to surrender his cellphone by Border Patrol agents. “This wasn’t something that was random,” says Makled. “They had a whole profile about me.” He was eventually released after 90 minutes of questioning and refusing to provide sensitive client information to the agents. Makled believes he was targeted due to his involvement in cases that challenge the current administration of President Donald Trump.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/11/lawyer_detained_border
Microsoft Worker Fired for Israel Protest: "Cloud & AI Are the Bombs & Bullets of the 21st Century"
Microsoft fired two workers who protested the company’s ties to Israel’s assault on Gaza at its 50th anniversary celebration last Friday. The workers protested after leaked documents revealed that Microsoft supplies the Israeli military with AI and cloud technology, as well as an Air Force unit known as the Ofek, to build “kill lists.” “We wanted everyone to know that Microsoft’s cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century,” says Vaniya Agrawal, No Azure for Apartheid organizer and a former Microsoft employee who was fired after disrupting an April 4 discussion between current and former Microsoft CEOs, including Bill Gates.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/11/no_azure_for_apartheid
"The Teacher": Director Farah Nabulsi and Actor Saleh Bakri on New Film Based in Occupied West Bank
A feature film about life in the occupied West Bank, *The Teacher*, opens in New York tonight and in theaters across the U.S. next week. The film, which is inspired by true events, centers a Palestinian schoolteacher who struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with supporting his student. “It’s a fiction narrative, this film, but it is deeply, deeply rooted in reality,” says Farah Nabulsi, director of *The Teacher*, which is partially based on the 2011 prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, in which one Israeli soldier was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Nabulsi and Saleh Bakri, the acclaimed Palestinian actor who stars in *The Teacher*, speak to *Democracy Now!* about the resonance of the film in the midst of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. “The occupation wants us separated,” Bakri says. “I want to dismantle these checkpoints … I dream of Palestinians coming together again.”
Headlines for March 31, 2025
Earthquake Death Toll Passes 2,000 in Burma; Trump’s USAID Cuts Slow Rescue Effort, Deadly Israeli Attacks on Gaza Continue as 15 Aid Workers Found in Mass Grave Near Rafah, Israeli Settlers & Soldiers Attack Masafer Yatta Again, But Only Palestinians Are Arrested, Israel Bombs Beirut Suburb for First Time Since November, U.S. Bombing Campaign on Yemen Continues, Trump Refuses to Rule Out Using Military Force to Take Greenland After Vance Visit, Trump Asks Supreme Court to Rule on Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Immigration Protests Held in Dallas & Outside Krome Detention Center in Florida, Report: U.S. Secretly Revoking Immigration Statuses of International Students, Columbia University Board Installs New President After Interim Leader Resigns, Law Firm Skadden Arps Agrees to Provide $100M in Pro Bono Work to Avoid Trump Sanctions, Tesla Takedown: Anti-Elon Musk Protests Held at Over 200 Dealerships, Musk Gives Out $1 Million Checks in Wisconsin Ahead of Critical Supreme Court Election,
Trump: “There Are Methods” He Could Use to Stay in Power for a Third Term, After Being Forced Out, Top FDA Vaccine Regulator Decries RFK’s “Misinformation & Lies”, Sudanese Military Seizes Major Market in Omdurman, Cementing Control of Capital Region, French Court Bars Far-Right Marine Le Pen from Running for Office for Five Years