SmartNews

The mass firings of government workers by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has business leaders in the Beltway fearing a localized recession could be on the way.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, restaurants, hotels and other businesses are witnessing in real-time sales plunging as workers lose their jobs or dial back spending due to a possible job loss.

Vice President J.D. Vance was taken to task by the conservative National Review's Andrew McCarthy for his constant running to X to post disingenuous attacks on opponents of the Donald Trump administration's immigration policies.

In a column posted Saturday morning, the legal analyst claimed the VP, a Yale Law School graduate, knows fully well the administration is denying immigrants their right to due process, and that Vance is making his claims more as a performance for MAGA devotees.

Towards the beginning of session Thursday, Michigan state Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Township,) stood up and announced on the House floor that she had just come from the parking ramp that representatives use and a black BMW had its hood open, lights on and engine running. Security footage later released by House Republicans shows Brixie plastic-wrapping that vehicle, which belonged to Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford).

Brixie told multiple media outlets Thursday that Maddock’s car had been parked partially in her spot.

The sweeping set of demands President Donald Trump’s administration insisted Harvard University comply with last Friday was sent to the elite institution by mistake and should never have hit their inbox, according to the New York Times.

But by the time Harvard received “a frantic call from a Trump official,” the following Monday, it was too late. The university had already defied the president’s demands for control, “setting off a tectonic battle between one of the country’s most prestigious universities and a U.S. president,” the Times reported.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow unloaded on the stunning number of legal challenges President Donald Trump is embroiled in as his MAGA administration continues to upend the federal government through massive cuts to federal programs and firings of government workers.

But there was one issue that has drawn legal scrutiny the primetime host zeroed in on that she told viewers on Friday “is just lighting up the country right now.”

President Donald Trump's major economic cabinet officials, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, were only able to persuade him to temporarily reduce the burden of his "Liberation Day" tariffs because they spoke to him while his most fanatical trade adviser was out of the room, reported the Wall Street Journal on Friday evening.

Peter Navarro allegedly was the individual with the idea in the first place to urge that Trump set tariffs based on the size of the U.S. trade deficit, or balance between imports and exports, with each country — an idea not endorsed by mainstream economists, who don't generally view trade deficits as a universally bad thing.

Allies and advisers of President Donald Trump melted down late Friday after a federal court ruled his administration must allow six transgender people to have their preferred gender reflected on their passports.

The Trump administration is not allowed to enforce its policy requiring six passport-holders' sex to align with what's listed on their birth certificate, Judge Julia E. Kobick said in a memorandum and order obtained by Bloomberg. The judge partially allowed the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary block, finding they were likely to succeed in their lawsuit.

Faith leaders are imploring President Donald Trump to reconsider as his administration moves to order the "self-deportation" of Afghan Christians who fled to the United States to escape the Taliban, Fox News reported on Friday evening — particularly because the order came down right around Easter, one of the most holy holidays of the Christian faith.

Already, the president has overseen mass deportations that caught up some asylum seekers from Afghanistan who would face imprisonment or death by the extremists running the theocratic Taliban regime. This new move places many thousands more in jeopardy.

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board bonked the Trump administration Friday evening over its latest move to "whack Americans."

The Trump administration on Thursday announced new fees on Chinese-built and Chinese-owned ships docking at U.S. ports. The fees are part of a broader effort to weaken China's dominance in shipbuilding and maritime transport, after U.S. trade officials concluded that China’s shipbuilding sector benefited from unfair competitive advantages.

A political reporter for HuffPost on Friday called out a Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesperson for the eyebrow-raising language they used in a statement provided to the publication.

HuffPost journalist Jennifer Bendery sought comment from the agency after she reported that HUD Secretary Scott Turner allowed employees to leave work early on Friday in honor of Easter and Passover in what the publication dubbed “a brazenly religious message.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force is now jumping into the fight to help with President Donald Trump's mass deportation project, Wired reported on Friday.

"DOGE is knitting together immigration databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies including the Social Security Administration, as well as voting records, sources say. This, experts tell WIRED, could create a system that could later be searched to identify and surveil immigrants," reported Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott. "The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations for citizens, certified foreign workers, and undocumented immigrants."

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a request from migrants in Texas to pause what they believe are imminent deportation flights, saying he doesn't have the authority to step in under a recent Supreme Court ruling.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg called an emergency hearing on Friday evening in response to reports that the Trump administration was plotting imminent deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, even as ongoing legal challenges and previous court orders prevent such removals.