Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Drops Tech Tariffs on China

From Power Line's Week in Pictures

Apparently the whines of the "lap-top class" became too insistent, and President  Trump exempts smartphones, laptops, and semiconductors from new tariffs (TechCrunch). At Hat Hair, Capt. Ed  Trump Exempts Hi-Tech Items From China Tariffs, Josh Hammer sees  Trump's Life's Work Culminates in Confronting Communist China,  Larry Elder notes the irony as The Left Discovers Milton Friedman, except all the inconvenient parts. and Salena Zito celebrates the Reversal of Fortune in Homer City: New Manufacturing Project a 'Game Changer'. MSN, In Secret Meeting, China Acknowledged Role in U.S. Infrastructure Hacks. Beege Welborn at Hat Hair Feels an Oligarchy Coming On - I Hope It's Not Painful. Matt Taibbi at Racket says Burn it all Down "Globalization, once hailed as a panacea, has proven to be fundamentally corrupt and needs to be blown to kingdom come."

Ksenia Karelina

Sundance at CTH reports Steve Witkoff Has Third Meeting in St Petersburg, Russia with President Vladimir Putin. From Da Wire, Trump Calls On Russia ‘To Get Moving’ On Peace Deal: ‘Too Many People Are Dying’. "The president's frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin has grown in recent weeks." From Fox, Russian American ballerina Ksenia Karelina has message for Trump after release from Russia, "President Donald Trump says he is ‘glad to have’ Karelina back home."

Hat Hair, Bill Maher Discovers Trump Doesn't Eat Small Children, Honest Enough to Admit It, Beege Welborn Maher's entire 'Book report on My Visit to the White House' is here: Capt. Ed, Bill Maher: My Visit With Trump Shocked Me. Matt Vespa at TownHall, Here’s What Blew Bill Maher’s Mind After Having Dinner With Trump. Sundance also hosts Bill Maher Describing His White House Dinner with President Donald Trump. Althouse likes "He's much more self-aware than he lets on in public.... Everything I've ever not liked about him was — I swear to God — absent at least on this night with this guy...." ""I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected... And he mostly steered the conversation to: What do you think about this?... There were there were so many moments when I hit him with a joke or contradicted something and no problem.... I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him.... I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump.... I feel it's emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days...." Nick Arama at RedState thinks you should Watch Bill Maher Brutally Shut Down a WaPo Reporter After He Attacks Meeting With Trump and reports Gretchen Whitmer's Very Embarrassing White House Picture Goes Viral. 

Matt Margolis thinks What Trump Did With Obama's White House Portrait Is Epic. Moved it from the front entrance and replaced with the classic Trump assassination photo "Predictably, critics immediately began claiming this was some sort of breach of protocol, suggesting the Obama portrait had been removed entirely. White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung swiftly shut down that narrative with characteristic directness: Steven Cheung @StevenCheung47 "Pipe down, moron. The Obama portrait was just moved a few feet away. Quote Chris D. Jackson @ChrisDJackson, "So Trump ditched tradition, broke protocol, and took down Barack Obama’s portrait—just to hang his own. Straight-up tin pot dictator energy. Insecure and petty to the end." It's perfectly normal for administrations to move pictures around. Did they think that was sacred? Sundance hosts President Trump Delivering Remarks on Air Force One Following Physical at Walter Reed.

At Twitchy, OOPS! End Wokeness DEMOLISHES the Left's Gaslighting About Plane Crashes With a Simple Chart. End Wokeness @EndWokeness, "You will not see this plane accident chart on TV because it doesn't fit the narrative." Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter, "If you want to know why we haven’t won a war in 30 years, it’s officers thinking that what they feel is important and needs to be shared with the wide wonderful world" Quote Thomas Doherty @dohertytjp "Replying to @infantrydort. She told the base staff (Danes, Canadians, and Greenlanders included) that she didn't feel the same way as Vance. So what. What Trump and Vance are saying is borderline illegal - implicit threats of force. Col. Meyers parroting that shit would not be moral or ethical. . . "

Da Caller reports Musk Slashes DOGE Savings Forecast By 85%. It's harder than they thought. Also,  GOP-Ordered Audits Find Wisconsin Universities, State Agencies Failed To Track DEI Spending. If you want to brag about it, you track it. From Fox, Dem states to blame for most of the nearly $400 million in unemployment fraud over last 4 years, DOGE says, "California, New York and Massachusetts doled out more than $300M in improper unemployment payments over the last four years, according to DOGE." Payoffs to the base. Francis Menton, the Manhattan Contrarian wonders Is There Any Fraud In The Medicaid Program? Here's A Place To Start Looking. John Sexton at Hat Hair reports EV Sales Continue to Climb in the US, Except for Tesla. 

Adrian Vermeule @Vermeullarmine, "The problem with SCOTUS’ whole approach to this case — and the point generalizes to other cases as well — is that it is too clever by half. Subtle distinctions (“facilitate” vs. “effectuate,” release from custody in El Salvador vs. return to the US) are trampled over by district judges, like this one, who are obviously gripped by a sense of mission to #resist the administration." Quote Margot Cleveland @ProfMJCleveland, "Just dripping with mutual respect, don't you think? x.com/ProfMJClevelan…" Adrian Vermeule @Vermeullarmine "This is now a real mess, caused by over-finessing by SCOTUS in a situation that called for clarity and decisiveness, combined with patently unreasonable behavior by the district court - weakness at the top and willfulness at the bottom." Adrian Vermeule @Vermeullarmine, "Unreal" Quote Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney "XINIS begins by summing up SCOTUS order, which she notes "affirmed all aspects of my decision and prior orders save for requiring clarification." "This court amended its prior order and made clear what the government must do consistent with the Supreme Court’s directive."

Sarah Arnold at TownHall reports Kash Patel Releases 700 Pages of Crossfire Hurricane Docs. Matt Margolis, Here We Go! Kash Patel Releases Massive Trove of Crossfire Hurricane Docs, more to come I hope. 

More "stochastic terrorism" from the left, MD Kittle at Da Fed reports Another Day, Another Alleged Would-Be Trump Assassin Charged. From Butler PA of all places. 

At WokeSpy, Adam Schiff Scrambles on Biden Cognitive Decline Question, Rants About Trump Golfing. Fox, Kamala Harris stays in the game as the former VP mulls next step: Washington or Sacramento?  Harold Hutchinson at Da Caller hears Doug Schoen Tells Harris Faulkner  the‘Far Left’ Made Democratic Party ‘Unrecognizable’: ‘The Party Has Been Taken Over’. Pop Times, Ideal America? Protesters Pitch Utopia Where Government Pays and Feelings Trump Freedom.

Da Wire explains Why Trump Is Reclassifying Illegals Who Were Given Social Security Numbers As Dead, "Many of the illegal aliens were receiving Medicaid benefits or other taxpayer-funded assistance programs " and having a "dead" social security number will stop that, eventually.

The NYSun reports More Bad News for CBS News as Ratings for Gayle King’s ‘Alienating’ Morning Show Plummet Amid Looming Settlement With Trump. "‘CBS Mornings,’ one of the network’s main money-making programs, saw its average total viewers drop below 2 million for the last two weeks of March."

From NYPo, NASA axes ex-DEI chief after giving her new job title in apparent effort to evade Trump crackdown. From the Free Bacon, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Parts Ways With Top DEI Officer In Wake of Free Beacon Report. "Neela Rajendra said deadlines are an obstacle to ‘inclusion.’" Good, now fire whoever let it happen. At Da Fed, Shawn Fleetwood sees How DEI Left Service Academies In A ‘State Of Decay,’ And How Trump Can Fix It.

Campus Reform asserts Most Americans support Trump crackdown on anti-Semitism on campus, new poll shows. John Sexton reports Stanford Activists Charged with Felonies for Building Takeover. Deport any non-citizens involved. Insty, SHOW THEM THEY’RE OUTNUMBERED:

Look at what happened when terror supporters tried to have a protest at Ole Miss.

American patriots will never be intimidated.

pic.twitter.com/baPQIDs5N5

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 11, 2025

The Wombat has Rule Five Sunday: Bunny Season! and FMJRA 2.0: No Grandeur, Lots of Misery, Just One Victory awaiting your attention at The Other McCain.