Trump Suffers Another Blow as Judge Orders Return of Second Deportee

A federal judge has ordered that a Venezuelan immigrant deported to El Salvador should be returned to the U.S.

On Wednesday night, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, appointed by President Trump, ruled that a 20-year-old Venezuelan man’s removal violated a previous court settlement, and that the government should facilitate his return. Gallagher also ruled that the government should not deport anyone else covered by the settlement.

In 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed by immigrants who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and sought asylum in order to have their applications processed while they stayed in the country. The government and the plaintiffs settled the case in 2024. But the Trump administration broke the agreement by sending one of the immigrants, known under the pseudonym “Cristian” in court records, to El Salvador last month as part of three deportation flights to the country.

“At bottom, this case, unlike other cases involving the government’s removal of individuals under the Alien Enemies Act, is a contractual dispute because of the Settlement Agreement,” the attorneys for the plaintiff said, referring to the eighteenth-century wartime authority Trump used to justify deporting noncitizens with little to no due process.

In her ruling, Gallager mentioned the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the government mistakenly deported to El Salvador, saying that “like Judge [Paula] Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this court will order Defendants to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties’ binding Settlement Agreement.”

The Trump administration said that Cristian was arrested in January for possession of cocaine and that “his designation as an alien enemy pursuant to the [Alien Enemies Act] results in him ceasing to be a member” of the class in the lawsuit. This may be moot now, though, as a federal judge ruled last week that any deportations under the 1798 law require the government to provide advance notice and a court hearing.

But the White House has shown a flippant disregard for court orders that go against its wishes, and they aren’t likely to respond favorably to Gallager’s ruling. Each day, the administration’s deal with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to send immigrants to the country is looking more and more legally questionable, but nothing appears to be changing, despite rebukes from multiple judges.

Donald Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine as soon as he returned to the Oval Office—but late Wednesday, amid a collapsing peace deal, Russia dropped more bombs on Kyiv.

By early Thursday—nearly 100 days into Trump’s second term—the president had resorted to begging his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop the violence.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Russia barraged Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones for 11 hours Wednesday night. The attack killed at least eight people and injured more than 70, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told Reuters.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was aimed at Ukraine’s defense industry, allegedly targeting manufacturing plants that produced “rocket fuel and gunpowder,” but the targets it hit were instead in five different Kyiv neighborhoods.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the attack as “one of (Russia’s) most outrageous.”

State Secretary Marco Rubio spontaneously pulled out of Ukraine peace talks Wednesday after Zelenskiy plainly rejected a U.S.-backed deal that would permanently hand over Crimea to Russia.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelenskiy said, at a press conference in Kyiv Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution.”

Responding via a post on Truth Social Wednesday, Trump claimed that the territory was “lost years ago” and “and is not even a point of discussion.”

In a statement released later that day, Zelenskiy stressed that his country was dedicated to achieving peace—but that Ukraine “will always act in accordance with its Constitution.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned Wednesday night’s attack, denoting Russia and the country’s “war aims” as the obstacle to ending the war.

“While claiming to seek peace, Russia launched a deadly airstrike on Kyiv,” Kallas wrote on X. “This isn’t a pursuit of peace, it’s a mockery of it.”

Trump expressed optimism on striking a new trade deal with China after he placed aggressive 145 percent total tariffs on the country. The Chinese government called his bluff immediately. 

“We’re dealing with a lot of countries right now and could be with China, but maybe we’ll make a special—you know, a deal—and we will see what it will be. Right now, it’s at 145 percent, that’s very high,” Trump said on Wednesday.

Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong directly rejected that assertion Thursday, noting that “claims about the progress of China-U.S. trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis.”

“China’s position is consistent, and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner,” he said at a press conference. “The U.S. should respond to rational voices in the international community and within its own borders and thoroughly remove all unilateral tariffs imposed on China, if it really wants to solve the problem.” 

Trump has made China a central target in his trade war, imposing 145 percent tariffs even as he paused reciprocal tariffs on all other countries for 90 days. Beijing responded with its own 125 percent tariffs on U.S. products, with more retaliation sure to come. 

After his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump’s approval rating is officially lower than it was during his first term, according to a humiliating Fox News poll released Wednesday.

Trump’s approval rating sank to 44 percent at the 100-day mark, down five points from the previous month. That’s one point lower than Trump’s approval rating at the same point during his first term and markedly lower than the approval ratings for Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush.

Respondents—even Republicans—were feeling significantly less positive about the beginning of Trump’s second term. Thirty-eight percent of respondents, and 75 percent of Republicans, said they felt “encouraged” about the next four years, which is down from 45 percent and 84 percent, respectively, in 2017. It seems that Trump’s erratic first few months in office haven’t stoked confidence in his leadership.

The Fox News poll was also a searing indictment of Trump’s so-called mandate to Make America Great Again, as the president also received negative approval ratings on nearly every aspect of his policy agenda.

The areas where voters said Trump was failing the most were inflation and tariffs, which both received a 33 percent approval rating. Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal tariff” policy would likely result in higher inflation. Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund said that the president’s sweeping “reciprocal tariff” policy would likely slow both global and domestic growth.

On the economy, Trump received a record-low approval rating of 38 percent, according to Fox News, with the outlook looking poor as 71 percent of respondents said that they rated the economic conditions negatively and 55 percent said that conditions were worsening for their families.

Recent polling from Reuters/Ipsos also found that the president was underperforming on nearly every key issue.

The singular area that garnered the president a positive approval rating was his work on border security, of which a 55 percent majority approves. Trump received a record-high approval rating on immigration—which was still just 47 percent. However, three recent polls have practically spelled disaster for Trump on the issue, with Americans increasingly disapproving of the president’s immigration policies amid a flurry of rushed deportations.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should stop using the Signal messaging app at this point.

The Washington Post reports that the former Fox News host had Signal installed on his office computer at the Pentagon, a major security risk and further evidence that Hegseth used the messaging tool frequently for government business. According to the Post, the desktop app mirrored Hegseth’s phone and helped the secretary overcome the lack of cell phone service within the Pentagon.

Cell phones and other personal electronic devices are not permitted within classified spaces, and installing Signal on his desktop computer allowed Hegseth to get around that prohibition. At least one of Hegseth’s top aides, his chief of staff Joe Kasper, also expressed interest in using Signal on Department of Defense computers, but it’s not clear how widespread the app is among Pentagon employees.

Hegseth and his team are also required by law to preserve messages sent to one another, and there’s no indication that they have done so with their conversations on Signal, which allows messages to automatically disappear. A spokesperson for Hegseth, Sean Parnell, told the Post in a statement that Hegseth “has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

According to the Post’s sources, Hegseth had Signal installed on a second computer in his Pentagon office and was interested in an app that allowed him to send conventional text messages from his computer.

Hegseth is under fire for using Signal last month to discuss attack plans against targets in Yemen with other top administration officials in a group chat with a journalist, Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, accidentally present. On Sunday, Hegseth was in hot water again when it was discovered that he discussed the attack plans in another, personal group chat with his wife, personal lawyer, and brother, among others.

Classified information is not supposed to be shared within private messaging apps such as Signal, and Hegseth has faced calls to resign, as well as reports that President Trump has begun the search for a new secretary of defense. Trump has publicly denied these reports, and says he stands by Hegseth.

But Hegseth is facing more turmoil within the DOD, with three top employees being fired last week as the result of a leaked investigation. Others within the department think he may not last much longer, especially considering he doesn’t have much support in Congress, having narrowly been confirmed by the Senate thanks to a tiebreaker vote from Vice President JD Vance.

Hegseth’s actions, if they weren’t scrutinized before, will now be under a microscope, and any other scandals, even small ones, could sink his tenure.

And just like that, the bromance is over. Elon Musk is preparing to step away from DOGE in May, and President Trump seems to be looking forward to being rid of his “special employee.” The president is already referring to the billionaire DOGE head in the past tense, even with a month left on his tenure.

“He was a tremendous help, both in the campaign and in what he’s done with DOGE,” Trump said at a press conference from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. “He was treated very unfairly by the—I guess you call it the public.… They took it out on Tesla.… He really helped the country. Saved us a lot of money.… He was always gonna ease out.”

Musk has cast himself as this sacrificial lamb, taking on both so much responsibility with DOGE and so much hate and nastiness from the public that he simply cannot go on. And while the hate has been real—Tesla stocks have plummeted as Musk’s E.V. car company took a massive reputational hit—the damage Musk has already done to our federal government may be here long after he’s gone.

The State Department can’t seem to handle its own heat.

State Secretary Marco Rubio spontaneously pulled out of Ukraine peace talks Wednesday, leaving State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce bickering with CNN’s Pamela Brown after the Trump mouthpiece refused to talk shop about the potential peace deal or answer basic questions.

“I know you want to have a sense of what ratings might be, or pulling people in, but it is, I and—” Bruce said, before Brown interjected that “it’s not that, it’s just trying to get answers for our viewers.”

“We will not have this debate, certainly it’s not going to be a negotiation between you and me, and you know that, I know that, and the audience should know this is a dynamic that is very different than this kind of an exchange which is unfortunate,” Bruce continued.

“Okay, you are the State Department spokesperson, it is very fair for me to ask you basic questions about what has been said publicly,” Brown clarified.

“I’m trying to be!” the former Fox News contributor responded.

“You didn’t answer some of my questions, which is why I followed up, which is my job,” Brown pushed back.

“I didn’t answer the way you wanted me to answer it,” Bruce said. “That’s the difference. I answered them but not in the way you wanted.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy plainly rejected a U.S. deal that would permanently hand over Crimea to Russia.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference in Kyiv Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution.”

Responding via a post on Truth Social Wednesday, Trump claimed that the territory was “lost years ago” and “and is not even a point of discussion.”

In a statement released later in the day, Zelenskiy noted that “emotions have run high today.”

“But it is good that [five] countries met to bring peace closer. Ukraine, the USA, the UK, France and Germany. The sides expressed their views and respectfully received each other’s positions,” Zelenskiy wrote on X. “We are grateful to partners. Ukraine will always act in accordance with its Constitution and we are absolutely sure that our partners, in particular the USA, will act in line with its strong decisions.”

Donald Trump’s tariffs will end up hurting most Americans, acting as a tax increase for nearly every income group, with a minimal impact on the top one percent of earners.

Those are the findings of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released Wednesday. The study found that if Trump’s tariffs of 10 percent on most countries, 25 percent tariffs on certain sectors for specific countries like Mexico and Canada, and 145 percent tariffs on China were still around in 2026, the poor would be hit the hardest.

Specifically, the bottom 20 percent of Americans making less than $29,000 per year would in effect have a tax increase of 6.2 percent on their yearly income. The middle 20 percent of Americans, with incomes between $55,000 and $94,000, would see the equivalent of a tax hike of 5 percent of their yearly income. But the top one percent of Americans, making more than $915,000 per year, would only see a relative tax increase of just 1.7 percent.

Even before the 2024 elections, Trump’s tariff idea was painted as a giveaway to the richest Americans, benefiting those with major assets. Small businesses are already seeing negative effects from Trump’s moves, unable to keep up with higher prices from suppliers. At one point, even the government wasn’t making any money off of the tariffs—a glitch at U.S. ports prevented their collection.

Even aside from glitches, the government’s tariff revenue is far below the billions promised by Trump. And his constant flip-flops smack of market manipulation—Trump even bragged about how much money his wealthy executive friends made when stocks jumped after he announced a pause in most of his tariffs earlier this month. The president also has his own scheme to personally cash in.

But the markets are still sliding lower each day the tariffs are in effect. Trump has backed off of his attacks on China and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for now. However, until there’s some kind of deal with China and other countries that allows Trump to save face on an obviously ill-though out concept of a plan, the economy will continue to suffer as Americans are forced to live under a tax hike.

Vice President JD Vance thought it was “crazy” that he was one of the last people to see Pope Francis before he died early Monday morning.

“I thought a lot about that, it’s pretty crazy actually,” Vance told reporters while on a visit to Agra, India, on the tarmac on Wednesday. 

“Obviously I was able to see him very briefly the morning of Easter Sunday. I knew he was very ill, I didn’t realize how sick he was. The thing that I will always remember Pope Francis for is that he was a great pastor. People on the margins, poor people, people suffering from diseases, they saw in Pope Francis an advocate, and I think a true expression of Christian love.”

Pope Francis has had a tenuous relationship with Trump, Vance, and the Christian right in America for the entirety of his papacy. He was a noted environmentalist who often chastised the Trump administration for its lack of humanity on immigration and climate change and its misuse of Catholic Social Teaching.  

Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday, according to the Vatican.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right security minister who openly supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, said on Wednesday that the Republican leaders he met with in the United States were in full support of his plans to bomb Gaza’s humanitarian aid stations.

“I had the honor and privilege of meeting with senior Republican Party officials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X. “They expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely.”

This is par for the course for a government that has massacred likely hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the name of self-defense. Ben-Gvir doubled down on his hatred shortly after.

“I see the reports about the debate over who should bring ‘humanitarian’ aid into Gaza: Well, it’s a fundamentally stupid debate, because the entire Strip should not receive any ounce of aid as long as our hostages are being held there,” he said.

Ben-Gvir was welcomed to Florida with open arms. He met with the Miami Police Department, spoke at a Jewish school in Fort Lauderdale, and stopped by an Israeli-Russian-owned gun store. He also had dinner at Mar-a-Lago, which President Trump was not present for. Ben-Gvir will be in New York City on Thursday.

Ben-Gvir has a long history of cruel, racist, anti-Arab sentiments that has led him to be convicted of eight charges related to incitement of racism and support for Israeli terrorism against Arabs. Multiple protests have erupted around his visit to the United States.