memeorandum: China Orders Boeing Jet Delivery Halt as Trade War Expands (Bloomberg)

11:15 AM ET, April 15, 2025

Top Items:

Roger Parloff / Default:

Abrego Garcia and MS-13: What Do We Know? — The allegation seems to stem from double hearsay in a document authored by a later suspended police detective. — Meet The Authors … In multiple filings, the government has conceded that it wrongfully removed Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia …

Discussion: Baltimore Sun, The Hill and The Gateway Pundit

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:

The Constitutional Crisis Is Here — Between the path of outright defiance of the Supreme Court and following its order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador's infamous Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the Trump administration has chosen a third way …

Discussion: Today's Edition Newsletter, HuffPost, Mother Jones, To the Contrary, OutsideTheBeltway, Alternet.org, CNBC, The Forward, Blaze Media, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing, UPI, New Republic, Axios, The Post Millennial, New York Times, KDFX-TV and NextDraft

Chris Geidner / Law Dork:

Trump told us the horrifying reason why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not back in the U.S. — We are approaching one month since the United States illegally sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the CECOT “terrorism” prison in El Salvador on the third March 15 flight that took people to the prison.

Discussion: New Yorker, Politico, MeidasTouch News, The Message Box, Slate, HuffPost, Bloomberg, The Hill, Breitbart, New Republic, Reason, Raw Story, New York Daily News, Techdirt, CBS News, Rolling Stone and New York Times

G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:

Trump's immigration agenda is not popular — To start this post, I am going to ask you a key question about immigration policy. But first, I need to establish a few facts based on recent news: — On Monday, April 14, 2025, Donald Trump met with the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, in the Oval Office.

Discussion: RVM News, Truthout, NPR and ProPublica

Edward Luce / Financial Times:

Trump is halfway to making America a police state — The president's refusal to accept a Supreme Court ruling on illegal deportation is a turning point — At around noon on April 14 2025, America ceased to have a law-abiding government. Some would argue that had already happened on January 20, when Donald Trump was inaugurated.

Discussion: NOTUS, Racket News, The Guardian, The Hill, Foreign Policy, New Republic, To the Contrary and Vanity Fair

Caroline Foreback / CBS News:

Maryland senator requests meeting with Salvadoran president to discuss deported Maryland man — Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen requested a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele during his visit to the United States to discuss the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported.

Discussion: HotAir, The Hill, Chris Van Hollen, New York Times, Associated Press, The Daily Wire, Bloomberg, Daily Caller News Foundation, Axios, CNN, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Baltimore Sun and Politico

NBC News:
Democratic lawmakers say they'll travel to El Salvador to push for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release

Discussion: Washington Times, Mediaite, Washington Examiner and The Hill

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Trump & Bukele Plot US Citizen Detention In Salvadoran Torture Camps, While Defying Supreme Court Via Gibberish Responses To Reporters

Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press:
Trump says he wants to imprison US citizens in El Salvador. That's likely illegal

Discussion: The Bulwark, The Guardian, Mother Jones, Raw Story, Reuters, RealClearPolitics, The Independent, Michael-In-Norfolk, HuffPost, ABC News, Rolling Stone, Patterico's Pontifications, PBS NewsHour, Breitbart, Vox and Scripps News

New York Times:
‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump's Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants

Discussion: Reuters and New York Times

Joyce Vance / Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance:
The Supreme Court Got It Badly Wrong

Discussion: Letters from an American, Reason, The Fucking News, NBC News and Daily Kos

George Porteous / The Stanford Daily:

Levin and Martinez express support for Harvard amid funding fight with Trump administration — University president Jonathan Levin '94 and Provost Jenny Martinez expressed support for Harvard after its president Alan Garber M.D. '83 — a Stanford Medicine professor emeritus …

U.S. Department of Education:
Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism Statement Regarding Harvard University

Discussion: USA Today, The Daily Caller, Blaze Media, The Post Millennial, RedState, PinkNews, The Independent, The Hill, Politico, Ars Technica and The Washington Free Beacon

The Bulwark:
Two Dictators Walk Into a Bar...

Discussion: Washington Post

Harvard University President:
The Promise of American Higher Education

Vimal Patel / New York Times:
Trump Administration Will Freeze $2 Billion After Harvard Refuses Demands

Discussion: Axios, The Hill, The Washington Free Beacon, New York Magazine, The Harvard Crimson, Reuters, The Guardian, Mediaite, Robert Reich, Hartford Courant, Bloomberg, CNN, New York Daily News, The Dialogue Dilemma, Raw Story and New York Post

Michael Casey / Associated Press:
Trump administration freezes $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard over campus activism

Jack Blanchard / Politico: The Great Fightback? — With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine — Good Tuesday morning.

New York Post: Harvard may be free to target Jews — but not on the taxpayers' dime

Reuters:
Harvard rejects Trump demands, gets hit by $2.3 billion funding freeze

Discussion: IJR, Al Jazeera, KRDO, The Japan Times, WBUR, The Independent and The Guardian

Jenna McLaughlin / NPR:

A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data — In the first days of March, a team of advisers from President Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency initiative arrived at the Southeast Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board.

Discussion: Alternet.org and Raw Story

Sohrab Ahmari / UnHerd:

JD Vance: My message to Europe America doesn't want a vassal continent — “It's not good for Europe to be the permanent security vassal of the United States.” So says JD Vance during a phone conversation with UnHerd on Monday, his first major interview with a European outlet since taking office as Vice President.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, UPI, Bloomberg, The i Paper, The Independent, PinkNews, The Kyiv Independent, Semafor, Politico and CBS News, more at Mediagazer »

Punchbowl News:

Why President Trump isn't signing many laws … Trump and Republican congressional leaders often claim his new administration has been the most productive in recent memory. — Except when it comes to passing laws. — Trump has signed fewer bills into law at this point in his presidency …

Punchbowl News:
4/15/25 ☀️ AM: — News: NRCC gets on track with $21M raised in March

Discussion: Fox News and The Kyiv Independent

Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:

This Tax Day, an IRS in Crisis — Every year during tax season, please spare a thought for the IRS. It is our least loved agency, but one of our most important. Last year, I noted how an IRS modernization effort was making real progress in terms of improved service quality.

Discussion: The Hill, Reuters, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, 19FortyFive and Fox News

Paul Krugman:
Happy Tax Evasion Day!

Discussion: USA Today, FedSmith.com, Fox News, Staten Island Advance and New York Post

New York Times:

Columbia Activist Arrested by ICE at His Appointment for Citizenship — Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, has lived in the United States for 10 years and was arrested in Vermont. He has not been charged with a crime. — Mohsen Mahdawi, an organizer of pro-Palestinian demonstrations …

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

The Vibe Shifts Against the Right — Alex Kaschuta's podcast, “Subversive,” used to be a node in the network between weird right-wing internet subcultures and mainstream conservatism. She hosted men's rights activists and purveyors of “scientific” racism, neo-reactionary online personalities …

Discussion: Raw Story and Alternet.org

Bloomberg:

US Derails G-7 Condemnation of Russian Missile Strike on Ukraine — The US has told Group of Seven allies it won't endorse a statement condemning Russia's deadliest attack on Ukraine this year because it wants to keep negotiations with Moscow on track. — Russia fired two short-range …

Discussion: New Jersey Online, The Kyiv Independent, Raw Story, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, BBC, New York Times, Politico, Reuters, WSVN-TV and The Defense Post

Coral Davenport / New York Times:

Inside Trump's Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations … At the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump administration officials want to reverse a regulation that has required nursing homes to have more medical staff on duty. — At the Mine Safety and Health Administration …

Bloomberg:

China Orders Boeing Jet Delivery Halt as Trade War Expands … Beijing has also asked that Chinese carriers halt any purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from US companies, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing matters that are private.

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Examiner, CBS News, Quartz, KRDO, Live and Let's Fly, Fox Business and New York Post

Yuki Noguchi / NPR:

DOGE cut a CDC team as it was about to start a project to help N.C. flood victims — In and around Asheville, N.C., there are still visible signs of devastation that remain from the floods of Hurricane Helene six months ago: rusted debris in the yards of water-damaged residences in ruins.

Discussion: Carolina Journal

Punchbowl News:

State Dept. to propose major overhaul of U.S. diplomatic footprint … The document, part of a broader FY 2026 budget proposal due to the Office of Management and Budget later today, outlines a consolidation of outposts in countries such as Japan and Canada, that includes “resizing” …

Discussion: Raw Story and Politico

New York Times:

White House to Ask Congress to Claw Back Funding From NPR and PBS — Trump administration officials want legislators to rescind $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides some support for public media. — The White House is planning to ask Congress to claw …

Discussion: Politico, Fox News, Blaze Media, Shore News Network, Raw Story, Associated Press, Twitchy, The Hill, Scripps News, Mediaite, Bloomberg, New York Post and The Post Millennial, more at Mediagazer »

Popular Information:

North Carolina Supreme Court throws out hundreds of ballots based on flawed data — This is a special collaboration between Popular Information and Anderson Alerts, a newsletter about North Carolina politics. — Josiah Young was born and raised in North Carolina.

Discussion: Fox News, The Atlantic, Associated Press, Anderson Alerts and USA Today

Bloomberg:

EU Expects US Tariffs to Stay as Talks Make Little Progress — The European Union and US made scant progress bridging trade differences this week as officials from President Donald Trump's administration indicated that the bulk of the US tariffs imposed on the bloc will not be removed.

Discussion: The Contrarian

Sadie Gurman / Wall Street Journal:

This Lawyer Defended Republicans and Democrats. His Candor Cost Him His Job. — Erez Reuveni, a career Justice Department attorney, made no excuses for the government's error in deporting a man to an El Salvador prison — WASHINGTON—When a judge expressed outrage that the first Trump administration had …

Discussion: CBS News and American Greatness

Timothy Snyder / Thinking about:

State Terror — Yesterday the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man who was mistakenly sent to a gulag in another country, celebrated the suffering of this innocent person, and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps. — This is the beginning …

Discussion: Mediaite

Matt Lavietes / NBC News:

Man arrested after threatening Tulsi Gabbard and her husband — “Prepare to die, you, Tulsi, and everyone you hold dear,” one of the texts read, according to the Justice Department. “America will burn.” — A man is facing a federal charge after allegedly threatening to kill Director …

Discussion: New York Post, Townhall, USA Today, UPI and The Daily Caller