Trump Is Planning a Nationwide Crackdown Targeting Blue Cities

More militant ICE raids are coming to a city near you.

The Trump administration is readying tactical ICE units known as “special response teams” to conduct large raids in five Democratic cities, according to MSNBC. They will be in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and northern Virginia. While it’s unclear when exactly the raids will start, all ICE agents in those areas have been told to stand by.

This is going to be a mess. Trump’s crackdown in Los Angeles—with thousands of National Guardsmen and hundreds of Marines patrolling the streets—is the model for his larger deportation campaign: Have ICE pour into a community and make indiscriminate arrests, then when civilians predictably resist, use that to justify sending even more militant forces in to quell the chaos that ICE induced. New York City is already on edge, as 80 protestors were arrested in Lower Manhattan Tuesday night at an anti-ICE protest.

“’Look, this isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles, when Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. He made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.’” He’s right. ICE is planning to expand its campaign of terror to blue cities across the country. If Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—which includes billions in funding for a mass deportation campaign—passes, it will get even worse.

Elon Musk has come crawling on his hands and knees back to Donald Trump.

The antagonistic technocrat gave a public apology for his harsh words directed at his ally in the White House, in a post on X at 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” he wrote.

But Musk hadn’t simply criticized Trump’s policies during their messy public break.

Musk had implied that Trump was implicated in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and alleged human trafficker, and that was why his administration was soft-footing the release of the so-called Epstein files. He’d even backed calls for Trump’s impeachment. In doing so, the billionaire set himself adrift from the MAGA crowd that had readily embraced him.

Obviously, the internet was more than a little curious about which posts Musk regretted and why he’d decided to walk back his hard turn away from Trump.

To some the answer seemed obvious: His feud had cost him too much money.

Others speculated that Musk had decided he’d drawn the public’s attention to his own close relationship to Epstein’s associates.

It’s clear that Musk has been trying to turn the ship on his departure from Trump’s good graces, cheerleading the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration protests in Los Angeles. In a podcast interview earlier this week, Musk declared that he had “no hard feelings” about Trump, and sources close to Musk told Reuters that his anger at the president had subsided and he may want to rekindle their connection.

Congressional Republicans aren’t sticking around to watch Donald Trump blow millions of taxpayer dollars on himself this weekend.

Just seven of 50 surveyed GOP lawmakers are planning to actually attend the president’s birthday festivities over the weekend, reported Politico.

Trump’s 79th birthday coincides with the Army’s 250th anniversary. To celebrate, the president is throwing himself—and the U.S. military—a parade and festival that Army officials estimate could cost up to $45 million, with millions in damages to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Those sticking around include some of Trump’s most stalwart MAGA supporters: Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (who told Politico “of course” she’d be there), Byron Donalds, and Elise Stefanik are all planning to celebrate. Representatives Cory Mills, Rich McCormick, John McGuire, and Lisa McClain are also expected to be in attendance.

But the list of those planning to skip is much longer. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Majority Whip John Barrasso won’t be in town, nor will House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Senator Tommy Tuberville excused himself to continue his campaign for Alabama’s gubernatorial race, while Senator Markwayne Mullin said the date coincides with his anniversary, reported Politico. Speaker Mike Johnson’s office wouldn’t comment.

Notable veterans are also planning to sit this one out. Senator Lindsey Graham said he’s not planning to attend, and Senators Todd Young, Rick Scott, and Tim Sheehy won’t be there either. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast told Politico that he hadn’t made up his mind as to whether he’ll be there.

And the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Representative Mike Rogers and Senator Roger Wicker, won’t be around, either. Instead, they’re planning to be at another airshow scheduled for next week in Paris, where defense contractors will gather for an annual conference.

Trump has wanted a military parade for himself since at least 2018, but the idea was quickly shot down by local and military officials who cited enormous estimated damages to Pennsylvania Avenue, torching the hefty price tag involved in dragging heavy equipment through the U.S. capital. The president was reportedly inspired after watching a Bastille Day celebration in Paris in 2017.

“It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen.… We’re gonna have to try and top it,” Trump said at the time, “but we had a lot of planes going over and a lot of military might, and it was really a beautiful thing to see.”

The parade will include 6,600 soldiers who will represent every era of the Army’s history. It will also showcase some 150 vehicles as 50 aircraft, including 26 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 27 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, two World War II Sherman tanks, a World War I–era Renault tank, eight CH-47 helicopters, 16 UH-60 Black Hawks, and four World War II–era P-51 aircraft, Army officials told CBS News.

The plan was not always to have a march that big. In February, the Army put out a press release indicating that it intended to celebrate its anniversary “with a series of commemorations, including leadership engagements, community outreach events and other events showcasing Army units, history, lineage and esprit de corps.” It did not make mention of a parade.

Donald Trump says he’s finally cracked a tentative deal with China—but why doesn’t it sound any good?

Trump announced on Truth Social Wednesday morning that a long-awaited trade deal had finally materialized, though it was still subject to “final approval” by Chinese President Xi Jinping and himself, and indicated that the U.S. would impose a 55 percent tariff on Chinese goods, while China would impose a 10 percent tariff.

While these numbers are significant deescalations from the whopping 145 percent tariff Trump had levied on Chinese exports and the 125 percent tariff rate on U.S. exports China imposed in response, Trump’s deal still leaves something to be desired.

Before Trump entered office, China and the U.S. both had roughly 20 percent tariffs on exports from each other’s countries. In an initial agreement last month, the U.S. had agreed to lower rates to 30 percent and China had lowered to 10 percent, before Trump blew up the deal.

So while the U.S. will still have to pay more for Chinese goods—a policy that will ultimately raise prices for American consumers—it seems that China has struck a deal to pay even less for American goods than it did before Trump was in office.

Meanwhile the other terms of that deal seemed to provide assets both countries had before Trump’s ridiculous trade war.

“FULL MAGNETS, AND ANY NECESSARY RARE EARTHS WILL BE SUPPLIED, UP FRONT, BY CHINA,” Trump wrote.

China’s grip on rare earths had provided it with a lot of leverage in negotiations with the United States. When Trump first levied his astronomically high tariffs on China, Beijing essentially shut down exports, and even after it agreed to a truce, in Geneva last month, Beijing still required companies to purchase special licenses to buy them, placing a particular strain on robotics and defense companies.

In return for resuming the supply of rare earths, the U.S. would allow Chinese students to attend American universities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late last month that he would begin “aggressively” revoking the student visas of Chinese students, claiming concerns over national security. As one could probably assume, the purported threat posed by these students was never real but a bargaining chip for the Trump administration.

Trump noted that allowing Chinese students to study at American universities has “ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!”

Democracy is “under assault” under Donald Trump’s leadership, according to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In a nearly nine-minute address to his state and to the nation Tuesday evening, Newsom warned that the president’s choice to manhandle Los Angeles, without any input from the government or people of California, indicates a leader on the verge of authoritarianism.

“If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe,” Newsom said. “Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.

“Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control,” he continued. “And by the way, Trump, he’s not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him. What more evidence do we need than January 6?”

Thousands of locals flooded the streets of Los Angeles over the weekend in a stunning visual protest of the president’s agenda. Protesters blocked off a major freeway, trashed Waymos (self-driving cars), and organized outside of City Hall and the Metropolitan Detention Center. In reaction, law enforcement officials shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas and flash bangs into crowds of civilians. The FBI added protesters suspected of throwing rocks at police cars to its Most Wanted list and ominously threatened to intervene in the anti-Trump display without guidance from California or the White House.

California sued the federal government Monday to roll back Trump’s deployment of 4,100 National Guard members that state authorities said had not been authorized or requested to handle the protests—an order that Newsom slammed Tuesday night as “illegal” and a “brazen abuse of power” that “inflamed a combustible situation.”

“When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. he made that order apply to every state in this nation,” Newsom said. “This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.”

In another decision that nobody responsible for overseeing peace in Los Angeles wanted, Trump additionally deployed 700 Marines to the City of Angels, an initiative that Defense officials revealed Tuesday would cost U.S. taxpayers $134 million.

Trump also endorsed threats to arrest Newsom when the California governor began to hit back, telling reporters that he’d “do it.”

“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes; this moment we have feared has arrived. He’s taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our Founding Fathers’ historic project: three coequal branches of independent government,” Newsom continued.

“The Founding Fathers didn’t live and die to see this kind of moment,” Newsom said, urging Americans to “stand up” to the Trump administration’s aggressive control. “I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear,” he continued. “But I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence: to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.”