In many cases #Trump is relying on, or asserting, unilateral power rather than turning to the courts or federal agencies to carry out his demands. Many of his targets are those who prosecuted or challenged him politically, or are institutions & groups he sees as ideological impediments, like elite #universities.

In the process, #Trump has blurred the personal & the political, making it difficult in some instances, like his targeting of #academic & #cultural institutions, to distinguish between his grievances & policy goals. [hint it’s all always about him, he couldn’t care less about policy]

#RevengePolitics #AbuseOfPower #law #tyranny #WeaponizationOfGovernment #USpol

List: Who Trump Has Targeted for #Retribution
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/07/us/trump-revenge-list.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=66828DAC-72F7-4970-9008-14200628818D

Acc/to Olu Sonola, an economist at Fitch Ratings, the average #US #tariff rate on all imports will be ~22%, a rate last seen around 1910 [you, know what led up to the #GreatDepression]. “This is a game changer, not only for the US economy but for the global #economy,” Sonola said in a statement. “Many countries will likely end up in a #recession.”

…The levies #Trump announced on Wed are separate from the ones he has already imposed on #steel, #aluminum, & foreign-made #cars & parts. Taken as a whole, his tariffs represent a dramatic expansion from the more narrowly targeted duties he imposed in his first term—some of which the Biden Admin retained—& a final nail in the coffin for the open #trading environment that reigned before 2016.

After weeks of nervous anticipation in the #financial #markets & in the capitals of America’s #trading partners, #Trump’s “Liberation Day” #tariffs have arrived, &, even by his standards, they are shockingly high & wide-ranging. “For decades our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, & plundered by nations near & far,” Trump said on Wed to a crowd at the WH that included members of #UAW, & also elected #Republicans.

Disgusting: The majority of the nations listed for “reciprocal” #tariffs on the 8-pg document distributed to reporters by the #Trump admin are #poor, #developing economies. They include some of the world’s poorest nations -- #SouthSudan, #Burundi & the #CentralAfricanRepublic -- as well as countries in the throes of #war, notably #Sudan.

The White House clarified that yes, as I posted earlier in this , the tariff numbers in the charts #Trump held up include BOTH reciprocal levies & the 10% baseline. So #Europe will face a 10% reciprocal tariff + a 10% baseline. #China will face a 24% reciprocal tariff, + the 10% baseline. Etc.

People had been expecting #Trump to announce high #tariffs, but these numbers are stunning. In addition to a 10% tariff on ALL COUNTRIES, dozens of other countries face extra tariffs between 10 & 50%. That will force some manufacturing back into the US, but will also definitely raise costs for American #consumers & #manufacturers & incite #TradeWars on many fronts.

“There’s a reason this came at 4 PM ET, with #markets closed,” said Jorn Fleck, senior director with the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council.

He said the #tariff on the #EU, his area of expertise, is a “very high number” that will be painful for #consumers & #businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

#Trump said #grocery & other #prices are starting to come down, & that his policies are bringing down #inflation. In fact, inflation has picked up in the first weeks of his term, & economists almost universally expect #tariffs to further drive up prices.

#Trump claims that experts have been wrong about #NAFTA, #China & his first-term #tariffs & that they will be wrong again about his current trade actions.

Futures on the S&P 500, which allow investors to trade when exchanges are not officially open, began to tumble after Trump started outlining the tariff rates. The index had ended the day higher, but futures are now down more than 1%.

That is also on top of #Trump’s other #tariffs that China will also face, including 25% tariffs on autos & 25% tariffs on metals.

Trump says to foreign countries, “If you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America.”

#Trump says he will charge the #UK a 10% #tariff. Remarkable, since the US runs a #trade surplus w/Britain, it’s a close ally & the country has been trying to negotiate a trade deal w/Trump.

Trump says he will also establish a “universal baseline tariff” of 10% that will apply to ALL COUNTRIES, in ADDITION to the numbers he’s already announced. That means a country like China will face a 44% tariff on top of the 20% already imposed.

Many of these tariff rates seem much higher than some economists & policymakers had been expecting.

#Trump says the US will calculate a tariff rate for other countries based on #tariffs & “other forms of cheating” — whatever that means.

He says #China will face a 34% tariff, while the #EU will be 20%. #Japan will be 24% & #India 26%.

#GaryShapley was a longtime #IRS agent when he told Congress in 2023 that prosecutors slow-walked an inquiry into then-President Joe #Biden’s son for #tax offenses.…

But Shapley’s testimony, along w/that of Joseph Ziegler, has made him a celebrated figure on the #FarRight & endeared him to advisers to #Trump, who in his first term openly mused about using #tax investigations to persecute his perceived #political #enemies.

That ofcl, #GaryShapley, was recently appointed to dpty chief of the #IRS’s #criminal division & to an “unprecedented” senior advisory role at the #Treasury Dept, he wrote to colleagues in a recent email…— giving #political appointees a direct line to #tax investigations for the first time since #Nixon.