• Ford offers handshake deal to every American: It’s an American icon, and Ford just announced employee pricing on vehicles for all Americans April 3 through June 2. “Ford, the most American auto company, is gonna do right by [the American people],” Ford’s chief policy officer said Thursday. It’s a smart move from Ford; most companies will increase prices after Trump’s announced tariffs. There’s a selfish motivation as well, of course. Ford has a large fleet of electric vehicles that has not been selling as well as it would like, and even when its EVs do sell, Ford loses billions. Still, this announcement could be a statement of faith and signal that this American icon will work with the new administration.

• Trump closes Chinese shipping loophole: In a series of protectionist measures — or, as supporters might say, 4D chess moves — Donald Trump has been upending the trade relationships of the U.S. On May 2, the “de minimis” exemption that has allowed Chinese retailers to ship items worth less than $800 directly to U.S. consumers without duties or close inspection will be ended. The administration says this loophole has let fentanyl and other drugs slip into our country due to the lack of inspection. Customs and Border Protection reports that it processes four million de minimis shipments on an average day. Consumers will notice this change as it will likely affect Shein, a popular clothing company, and Temu, an Amazon knockoff. Time will tell whether or not these policies benefit Americans, but at the very least, foreign competitors will be stifled.

• Pentagon IG to probe Hegseth’s use of Signal: At the behest of Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Jack Reed (D-RI), respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Pentagon Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins is launching an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the messaging app Signal. In the wake of the Signal flub, wherein journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in a military-strike group chat, there is concern over the use of the app regarding both classification and recordkeeping compliance. The IG investigation will seek to address those concerns, but it also appears to be an effort to fend off Democrat lawmakers’ demands for the appointment of a special counsel.

• NSC firings at Loomer’s urging? On Thursday, Donald Trump fired five senior National Security Council officials, as well as National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh. Leftmedia outlets were quick to tie these firings to right-wing media influencer and activist Laura Loomer, who had met with Trump the day prior and reportedly had given him a list of individuals deemed to be disloyal. When Trump was questioned regarding a supposed connection to Loomer and the NCS firings, he called Loomer a “great patriot” but said, “No, not at all.” He added, “We’re always going to let go of people — people we don’t like or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else.” Loomer has a history of criticizing individuals within Trump’s administration, some of whom have subsequently been fired.

• NYC Mayor Adams runs as an independent: It’s a bold move for a self-professed Democrat in New York City, but Eric Adams is running as an independent now that his court cases have finally wrapped up. Adams claims in his announcement video that he is still a Democrat, “But I’m not a quitter. I’m a New Yorker.” That’s his explanation for running independently after he missed the boat on the Democrat primary. He claims to be running as a sensible leader in the middle, without allegiance to the far Left or the far Right. Adams has been in hot water with the Democrat Party ever since he admitted that maybe endless illegal immigration was a problem. Running as an independent is another split with his professed party. If he wins, one wonders whether he’ll still be a Democrat by the end of his term.

• Matt Taibbi files $10M libel lawsuit against Dem congresswoman: At a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on Tuesday in which independent journalist Matt Taibbi testified, he was called a “serial sexual harasser” by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA). Her smear was intended to throw doubt on the credibility of Taibbi’s investigative reporting on the Twitter Files, which exposed the Biden administration’s coercion of social media companies to censor Americans’ speech. Yesterday, Taibbi raised a $10 million libel suit against Kamlager-Dove. His suit notes that her statements were “demonstrably false and were made with actual malice — either with knowledge of their falsity or with reckless disregard for their truth.” No woman has ever accused or charged Taibbi with sexual harassment.

• Biden’s DHS failed to protect unaccompanied children at the open border: Under the Biden administration, ICE and DHS failed to enroll 233,000 children who crossed the border into immigration proceedings. Roughly 43,000 children enrolled in proceedings have now failed to appear for court dates. The complete sponsor addresses for another 31,000 children were not recorded by HHS or DHS, leaving those kids to the whims of their sponsors, for good or ill. In 2023 and 2024, more than 24,100 children were sent to sponsors who were distant relatives or even wholly unrelated. These numbers are sobering and distressing, raising fears of trafficking, slavery, or exploitation. Under the Trump administration, border security has been paramount; far fewer children will ever be sent unaccompanied to the border, and those who are won’t flood the system meant to keep track of them.

• Judge says “America First” is racist: Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee who blocked the DHS from revoking Joe Biden’s amnesty for thousands of Venezuelan illegal aliens earlier this week, justified his decision in part by asserting that Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan is racist. Chen claimed that the term “America First” inferred “animus given the historical connection of that phrase.” Evidently, Chen needs to be reminded that context matters. In response, White House spokesman Kush Desai stated, “President Trump’s commitment to putting Americans and America First has only to do with his love for our country and our citizens, not animus against anyone else.” Chen’s ruling has blocked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from removing the Temporary Protected Status from roughly 600,000 Venezuelan migrants.

Headlines

• U.S. payrolls rose by 228,000 in March (CNBC)

• Senate confirms Mehmet Oz as head of Medicare and Medicaid Services (Daily Wire)

• FBI flooded with record number of new agent applications in Kash Patel’s first month leading bureau (Fox News)

• Trump admin freezing $510 million in federal funding to Brown University (NY Post)

• San Francisco mayor ends distribution of free supplies for addicts (Hot Air)

• Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault (NY Post)

• Humor: Genius Trump tricks Democrats into hating taxes (Babylon Bee)

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