Today in Politics, Bulletin 114. 4/17/25 Ron Filipkowski Apr 17 ∙ … Fed Chair Jerome Powell infuriated Trump by announcing he was not going to lower interest rates because of the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs: “The level of tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated, and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects which will include higher inflation and slower growth.” … Trump responded with with post referencing Europe’s central bank: “The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, ‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete “mess!” Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” … Powell addressed threats by Trump to fire him: “Our independence is a matter of law. Congress has, in our statute, we’re not removable except for cause. We serve very long terms, seemingly endless terms. So it’s protected in the law. So you know, Congress could change that law, but I don’t think there’s any danger of that. Fed independence is very widely understood and supported in Congress. We will only make our decisions based on our best thinking, based on our best analysis of the data about what is the way to serve to achieve our dual mandate goals as we can to best serve the American people.” … He then received loud applause from the audience when he closed with this: “That’s the only thing we’re ever going to do. We’re never going to be influenced by any political pressure. 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 political or any other extraneous factors.” … Politico reported that behind the scenes, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Trump repeatedly if he fires Powell it would destabilize the markets even worse. … There was another mass shooting on a school campus today, this time Florida State University, which left at least two dead and several others wounded in serious condition. The 20-year old suspect in custody Phoenix Ikner is the son of a local sheriff’s deputy and reportedly used her gun. … Trump was asked to comment after being told the number of victims: “I‘m a big advocate of the Second Amendment, I have been from the beginning, I protected it. These things are terrible. But the gun doesn‘t do the shooting, the people do.” … Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went on Fox to beg China’s President Xi to call Trump as he waits by the phone: “The entire world knows they need to do business with the US, and China knows that too. The ball is in China’s court. They need to do business with the US.” … Bloomberg reported that China is furious about JD Vance’s comments calling Chinese workers “peasants”, and will not engage in trade talks until Vance publicly apologizes for the remark: "China wants to see a number of steps from President Trump’s administration before it will agree to trade talks, including showing more respect by reining in disparaging remarks by members of his cabinet.” … WaPo’s Robyn Dixon: “That JD Vance comment about ‘Chinese peasants’ was taken in China as deeply offensive, and it is now a hurdle to trade talks. Trump administration’s approach appears tone deaf on this.” … MSNBC’s Catherine Rampell: “This is the problem with electing an administration of too-online edgelords instead of people who actually want to govern. You can’t just ‘shitpost’ your way to a deal with China.” … Bloomberg reported that Chinese refineries have slashed US oil imports by 90% and are now purchasing record volumes of Canadian crude. … Shaun Rein, with China Market Research Group: “China is not buying American oil but is now buying Canadian oil. China is not buying American soybeans but buying Brazilian soybeans. China is not buying American Boeings but buying France's Airbuses. China is not buying American beef but buying Australian. China has decided basically not to buy anything from America and, aside from semiconductors, can easily replace American made products.” .. “America, on the other hand, had to exempt iPhones and computers from tariffs. America can't buy antibiotics and rare earth anywhere else. Things are not going to go the way Trump wants. Bessent, Navarro, Lutnick should be fired. Can there be a more arrogant yet unsophisticated triumvirate in American economic history?” … European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “The West as we knew it no longer exists. Everyone is asking for more trade with Europe - and it's not just about economic ties. It is also about establishing common rules and it is about predictability. Europe is known for its predictability and reliability, which is once again starting to be seen as something very valuable. We don't have bros or oligarchs making the rules. We don't invade our neighbors and we don't punish them.” … Fox Business host Charles Payne on the Trump Admin’s claims that they would make 90 new deals in 90 days with countries after tariffs were announced: “The hope was 90 deals in 90 days. So far no deals have been announced. Right now, we're just hoping for some and it's down to 83 days. The more this clock ticks down, the more economic uncertainty will continue to tick higher.” … Derek Thompson with the Atlantic: “We really did it. We took a growing US manufacturing economy, declared it broken, started a trade war, and ... broke US manufacturing. In last 48 hours: Philly Fed Survey: ‘New orders fell sharply, from 8.7 in March to -34.2, its lowest reading since April 2020’. NY Fed Survey: ‘Expected orders and shipments plunging’. Again, this is supposed to be a policy to revive US manufacturing?” … Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal: “Only three times has the Philly Fed Manufacturing Survey plunged more in a month. Twice in spring 2020, and once in October 2008.” … The Dow was down 327.16 today, and US housing starts fell 11.4% in March. … The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump Admin appeal to block Judge Boasberg’s order finding them in criminal contempt for ignoring his order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia: “We shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision. It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The govt is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process.” … KSL News (Utah): “BYU PhD student Suguru Onda just had his student visa revoked without notice. He’s being told to go back to Japan within 15 days because of his alleged criminal history. But he only has two speeding tickets and a fishing citation from 2019 that was dismissed. Onda's attorney says he has little to no footprint on social media, doesn't speak out about politics, and, to our knowledge, was not involved in any protests on college campuses. He is married with 5 kids, two of which were born in the US.” … “Onda's attorney also claims, through what's he's seen in court documents, the government is using AI to find any criminal activity amongst student visa holders and canceling their visas without human cross-reference.” … FCC Chair Brendan Carr is now threatening to go after Comcast, the parent company for MSNBC, and CNN over when he says is biased coverage over the Kilmar Garcia story: “Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding US citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man’. When the truth comes out, they ignore it. Comcast knows that fed law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.” … Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “I know Brendan Carr from my days on the Energy and Commerce Committee. I never in my life would have imagined that this guy who I thought was a good man, would turn out to be the composer of state approved talking points and media. This is truly sad and disgraceful.” … Ryan Grim, DropSite News: “The hypocrisy of MAGA doesn’t shock me anymore, though this one takes it to new levels. To be pro-free speech but also want the FCC to edit and shape news coverage with vulgar threats is absurdly authoritarian. If this movement is not smashed and thoroughly discredited it’s the end of the US as even a marginally free country.” … NYT reported that several of the big law firms who surrendered to Trump are already regretting selling out: “Could the deals between Trump and the law firms be unraveling? There's a widening gap between what the firms believe they committed to and what Trump and the White House think their pro bono legal work can be used for: tariffs, helping the coal industry, repping Trump and his allies if they become ensnared in investigations.” … Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), told nonprofit leaders in AK that there are many Republicans in Congress who disagree with what Trump is doing but won’t speak out: “We are all afraid. It’s quite a statement, but we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.” … The Trump Admin is attacking Harvard in several different areas in their attempt to take over and dramatically reshape elite American universities. They froze $2.2B in grant money, canceled a research contract worth over $100 million, are threatening to revoke their tax exempt status, and now DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is demanding records on foreign students and said if the school doesn’t comply by April 30 she will revoke all student visas. … 27% of the Harvard student body is foreign students. The Trump admin’s other demands include dramatic changes in the university’s governance, hiring practices, admissions, teaching, and research programs. … Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes on Trump threatening to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status: “If Trump has the power to do this, then any president, of either party, can destroy any private institution in the country if it defies him. This would include nonprofits, churches, foundations, and charities all would exist only at the whim of the executive. Republicans should be careful what they wish for.” … Billy Long, Trump’s nominee to run the IRS, just had his campaign debt from 2022 paid off by several people who have current tax issues pending before the IRS. From The New Republic: “Long reported in campaign finance disclosures that he loaned $130,000 to his unsuccessful 2022 campaign for the US Senate, with the dormant campaign committee raising $36,000 in the past two years. This meant that Long would have been personally on the hook for more than $100,000.” … “Shortly after Trump announced Long as his pick to head the IRS, the committee was suddenly flush, taking in $137,000 in under three weeks in January, and Long used that to reimburse himself. Two-thirds of those donations were for $2,900, the maximum amount allowed by law, and one-third of them came from donors in the tax consultant industry or people with tax-related legal issues.” … Michael Beckel, of campaign finance watchdog group Issue One, to Lever News: “Making political contributions to aid Billy Long seems like a surefire way to ingratiate yourself with the man poised to lead the IRS, especially when we’re talking about contributions to help repay campaign debt that is just loans to the candidate himself and contributions to his leadership PAC. People often criticize campaign contributions for being legalized bribery, but in this case, we’re truly talking about money being given to Long to repay himself.” We had a great show yesterday on my podcast Uncovered doing a deeper dive into the biggest stories of the week. Link to the show is here. I am also coming out of a long 5-month winter hibernation here in Maine, and I have 3 weekend trips over the next two months. Except my weekends are going to be FRI-SAT since I work on Sunday and do the Weekend Bulletin. Tomorrow is the first trip, and we are going to some historic towns in CT - Simsbury, Granby, Wethersfield, with stop in Hartford to visit the Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe houses. So no Bulletin tomorrow and I will see you Sunday! Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … WSJ wrote a story detailing the sick, creepy and depraved way Elon Musk has been procreating with random women he meets online in order to create a “legion” of offspring. MAGA social media influencer Ashley St. Clair became the 7th woman to have one of his 14 children so far: “Musk offered St. Clair $15 million and $100,000 a month in support in exchange for her silence about the child, whom they named  Romulus. Similar agreements had been negotiated with other mothers of Musk’s children.” … Musk has long been obsessed with the Roman Empire, so he named this kid after they mythical founder of Rome who murdered his own brother and sought to rapidly increase the population of his settlement by kidnapping neighboring Sabine women for men in Rome to impregnate. … The story also reported that Musk send a private Direct Message to YouTuber Tiffany Fong and asking her if she would have a child with him. When she refused, he unfollowed her on X and cut off premium ad revenue payments of $42,000 a month. … WSJ that evangelical leader Paula White, who Trump appointed to run the WH Faith Office out of the West Wing, continues to raise huge amount of money on the side for her StoryLife ministry. While making her solicitations, she frequently references her work in the WH and uses clips of herself praying over Trump in the Oval Office. … Richard Painter who was the WH Ethics counsel for George W. Bush: “This is the use of a public office for private gain. You cannot use the presidency or any other public office to raise money for private organizations. No private organization should be doing this.” … Jennifer Korn, who works with White in the WH Faith Office, went on Fox to repeat the BS story where Trump claims he first learned about White 25 years ago when he was supposedly watching christian TV: “He called Pastor Paula White after he was watching Christian television. So remember, before he even thought about being president, he was watching Christian television.” … RFK Jr is facing intense backlash over comments he just made about autistic children: “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” … The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill: “Thinking of my friend Holly Robinson Peete, who has raised a productive, amazing autistic son, who is fearless, gainfully employed and pays taxes. These were disgusting, irresponsible comments by someone who is charged with overseeing public health for hundreds of millions of people. He is not qualified for this.” … Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL): “This is disrespectful and a flat out lie that further stigmatizes autism. It’s not a virus or a disease - it’s a neurological condition with a wide spectrum. Many Americans with autism work, pay taxes, and are living happy and healthy lives.” … Trump’s insane nominee for DC US Attorney Ed Martin failed to report hundreds of media interviews he made in the last few years, including over 150 he gave to Russian state media. CNN reported that the disclosure form he recently filed as he awaits confirmation from the Senate failed to disclose ones that included comments that he would prosecute family members of Joe Biden and criminally charge people involved in fed investigations into Trump. … Martin wrote on his disclosure form that there “may be other materials I have been unable to identify, find or remember. I regret the errors and apologize for any inconvenience.” … Martin continues to serve as acting US Attorney, which will expire on May 20 under the law unless he is confirmed by that date. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has still not taken any steps to move forward with Martin’s nomination before his Judiciary Committee. … AP reported that Sec of State Marco Rubio has shut down the Global Engagement Center, which identified and countered foreign disinfo campaigns - mostly from Russia, China and Iran: “While the center’s mission was to track foreign influence operations, it occasionally called out domestic websites and social media accounts it believed were amplifying propaganda related to issues like the Russia-Ukraine war. Rubio argued this crossed into dangerous territory for free expression, prompting his decision to eliminate the office.” … Former State Department spokesman Ned Price: “This is a deeply misleading and unserious portrayal of an organization focused on identifying foreign — primarily Russian — disinformation ops." … President Zelensky: “It was a difficult night in Dnipro—a Russian drone strike hit the city. They targeted ordinary residential buildings, ordinary civilian infrastructure. The rubble is still being cleared. Currently, 16 people are in city hospitals; in total, 28 people were injured, including 4 children. All of them are receiving assistance. Tragically, 3 people were killed by this Russian strike, among them a girl, Veronika—she was only 17 years old.” … “Odesa was also struck by drones. 3 people were wounded. Residential buildings, a pharmacy, and a church were damaged. The Sumy region came under aerial bomb attacks, while Kharkiv and Donetsk regions were hit by Russian ballistic missiles. Every defense package from our partners for Ukraine right now, every form of support from the world for our resilience, is literally the protection of lives. Russia uses every day and every night to kill. Wars are stopped through strength—strength against the aggressor, strength in defense of life.” … Roman Sheremeta, Econ Prof at American Univ of Kiev: “Since launching the war against Ukraine, Russians have killed 618 children. According to the UN, more than 2,500 Ukrainian children have been killed or injured since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. These are only the legally confirmed cases — the true number of casualties is likely much higher. And this doesn’t even account for the tens of thousands of children who have been kidnapped and forcibly taken to Russia.” … Trump continues to refuse to sell Ukraine Patriot missile defense systems despite the fact that the EU has offered to pay for them. … DNC Vice Chair David Hogg sparked some controversy when he announced that his ‘Leaders We Deserve’ PAC intends to spend $20 million to back younger challengers against long-time Democratic incumbents in the 2026 primaries. To Politico: “We have a culture of seniority politics that has created a litmus test of who deserves to be here. We need people, regardless of their age, that are here to fight.” … Hogg said that DNC Chair Ken Martin “certainly has different views” about it: “There are disagreements in our party about the right way to approach this moment. There are certainly disagreements we have. What I will say about Chair Martin, even if we do have disagreements, he’s doing an excellent job of building and reforming our party.” … Ken Martin: “In order to ensure we are as effective as possible at electing Democrats to office, it is the DNC’s longstanding position that primary voters — not the national party — determine their Democratic candidates for the general election.” … Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) went on Fox to blame PA Gov Josh Shapiro and Democrats for the arson attack on Josh Shapiro: "The left has to look in the mirror here. Our hearts go out to the Shapiro family on this, but they gotta tone it down too. Every action Josh Shapiro has taken so far against the president has either been a lawsuit or a falsehood." … Rep. Elise Stefanik is reportedly looking to challenge Kathy Hochul for governor of NY next year. Rep. Mike Lawler is reportedly running, so Stefanik getting in could throw gas on the fire of her feud with Lawler. Politico reported she was upset when Lawler when arranged a phone call between a woman seeking to run for her seat and Mike Johnson to get his endorsement when she was up for UN Ambassador. Stefanik thought he should stay out of the race for her successor. … Stefanik gave a speech last night to the NY Republican Party that strongly signaled she is running, focusing most of it on attacking Hochul rather than talking about business in the House. … Treasury Dept appointee David Eisner attempted to run interference for Pillow Man Mike Lindell with the IRS on his pending audit. WaPo reported that Eisner wrote to senior IRS staff that Lindell — whom he called a “high profile friend of the president” — received his second audit letter in two years and “he is concerned he may have been inappropriately targeted.” … Nina Olson, who was the National Taxpayer Advocate from 2001-2019: “That’s so inappropriate. In my 18 years as the national taxpayer advocate with over 4 million cases that came into the Taxpayer Advocate Service, in that time with taxpayers experiencing significant problems with the IRS, I have never had a Treasury official write me about a case.” … Lindell said that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding, and said Eisner “misconstrued” his request for help. Lindell claimed he was just asking for clarification on a unrelated matter regarding employees working remotely at home for his business, which had nothing to do with the audit .