Putin’s TV Goons Jump for Joy at Trump’s Tariff ‘Buffoonery’

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-tariff-buffoonery-elates-russian-tv-propogandists/

While the mood in Moscow has soured, Trump’s ill-conceived decision to impose tariffs on “Liberation Day” Wednesday—Russia excluded—brought joy and delight to state television. During Thursday’s broadcast of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, pundits marveled at the “buffoonery” of the Trump administration’s decision to disrupt global trade and undermine the American economy.

“This is the Swan Lake; Trump is playing the Black Swan,” political scientist Dmitry Kulikov said, adding that Trump wants “to break everything” and preside over the destruction. “It looks like the end of the global system is coming, the global system that is about fifty years old.”

Solovyov added that “Trump destroyed the trust” while undermining America’s economy.

“In reality, a monument should be erected to him,” Solovyov said. “This was a major blow to the system of capitalism.”

“After the blow Trump delivered against the global economy and global capitalist economy, I think he deserves at least a Sutulov medal,” he added.

Bill Ackman warns Trump to call a timeout on trade war: ‘This is not what we voted for’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5235232-ackman-warning-trump-tariffs/

Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed President Trump last year, is offering a stark warning about the risks of the White House’s tariff plans, arguing they could cause the economy to collapse while hurting Trump supporters the most.

“Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative,” he wrote.

Ackman began a lengthy post on the social platform X by praising Trump’s strategy, arguing the nation is “100%” behind Trump on fixing a trading system that disadvantages the country.

But while Trump has elevated the issue and gotten everyone’s attention, “by placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital,” Ackman wrote.

In Matter of Days, Outlook Shifts From Solid Growth to Recession Risk

 https://www.wsj.com/economy/in-matter-of-days-outlook-shifts-from-solid-growth-to-recession-risk-027eb2b4?mod=hp_lead_pos3

The economy was chugging along. Then came Trump’s dramatic tariff increase.

The stock market went off a cliff last week after President Trump announced the highest tariffs in more than a century, vaporizing more than $6 trillion of wealth in two days.

Whether the real economy will follow is impossible to know. But the risks are tilting in that direction. 

Donald Trump's Tariff Formula 'Based on an Error'—Conservative Think Tank

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-tariff-formula-based-error-conservative-think-tank-2055893

As President Donald Trump's tariffs spark alarm and criticism from across the political spectrum, analysts at conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) believe the formula used to calculate the import levies is "based on an error."

"However, the elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs should be about one (actually 0.945), not 0.25 as the Trump Administration states. Their mistake is that they base the elasticity on the response of retail prices to tariffs, as opposed to import prices as they should have done. The article they cite by Alberto Cavallo and his coauthors makes this distinction clear. The authors state that 'tariffs [are] passed through almost fully to US import prices,' while finding 'more mixed evidence regarding retail price increases.' It is inconsistent to multiply the elasticity of import demand with respect to import prices by the elasticity of retail prices with respect to tariffs."

Polling analyst Nate Silver shared the report on Friday on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: "OMG they applied their stupid f***ing formula incorrectly?!?"

In a separate X post, Silver wrote that the administration "dramatically increased the chance of a recession, wiped out trillions on wealth, and delivered a COVID-magnitude shock to the global economy...because they applied their stupid f***ing formula incorrectly?"

'Hands Off!' Protesters on Why They Are Rallying Against Trump and Musk

 https://www.newsweek.com/hands-off-protesters-why-they-are-rallying-against-trump-musk-2055931

Thousands of protesters packed Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on Saturday in a sweeping show of opposition to the Trump administration, joining the nationwide "Hands Off!" movement targeting President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

The protests were among more than 1,200 coordinated across the United States on Saturday, organized by "Hands Off!" a grassroots movement supported by civil rights groups, labor unions, and advocacy organizations.

Protesters primarily targeted the president and Musk for actions taken during the early months of the second Trump administration, criticizing mass federal layoffs, immigration crackdowns, and U.S. involvement in the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

In addition, hundreds of people in European cities—including Frankfurt, Berlin, London, Lisbon and Paris—took to the streets in solidarity with American protests.

‘Hands off!’: Tens of thousands of angry protesters across US assail Trump and Musk

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/hands-off-tens-of-thousands-of-angry-protesters-across-us-assail-trump-and-musk/

Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of major US cities on Saturday to oppose the divisive policies of President Donald Trump, in the largest demonstrations since his return to the White House.

So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organized for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LGBTQ advocates, veterans and elections activists, in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s first weeks in office.

Laws and customs for Erev Pesach that falls on Shabbat

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/406439

When the 14th of Nisan falls on Shabbat, the chametz is checked with a blessing on the night of the 13th of Nisan. On Friday, the chametz is burned. More below.

Musk slams key Trump adviser Navarro, calls for more free trade

 https://www.axios.com/2025/04/05/musk-trump-tariffs-navarro-tesla

Elon Musk blasted top Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro and told an Italian political gathering he wants more free trade, not less.

The two-day rout in the stock market this week, after Trump announced sweeping new tariffs backed by Navarro, cost Musk nearly $18 billion just on his Tesla stock.

By wading into the tariff debate, a subject he's mostly stayed away from, Musk could inject more uncertainty into U.S. efforts to re-order the global economy.

The ridiculous real story behind the tariff plan that turned Donald Trump into a global disaster

Trump defends tariffs after markets plunge for second straight day: ‘Economic revolution’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5233906-donald-trump-tariffs-economic-revolution/?tbref=hp

President Trump on Saturday took a victory lap over the sweeping new tariffs he levied on nearly all foreign trading partners, claiming the end result will serve as an “economic revolution.”

“We have been the dumb and helpless ‘whipping post,’ but not any longer,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before. Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast!”

“THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN,” he added. “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Trump Owns the Economy Now

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-economy-march-jobs-markets-karoline-leavitt-jerome-powell-437a89cd?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

He can try to blame the Fed, but the tariff blunder is his alone.

Markets continued to tumble on Friday, but hey, not to worry, at least the March jobs numbers were good. That’s the view from the White House, where press secretary Karoline Leavitt crowed Friday that “the economy is starting to roar” and “the President’s push to onshore jobs here in the United States is working.”

Ms. Leavitt needs to please her boss, but yikes. Someone should tell her the March jobs estimate was made before Mr. Trump’s tariff barrage. Markets for their part are making a bet on the future. The 228,000 job gain did beat expectations, but the manufacturing jobs boom still hasn’t arrived, with only 1,000 net new jobs in the month.

GOP Lawmakers to Worried Businesses: Let’s Try to Wait Out the Tariff Turmoil

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/republicans-grin-and-bear-it-as-businesses-beg-for-tariff-relief-1fa3f225?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Many GOP lawmakers say they trust Trump and hope stock-market turbulence is short-lived

“I think their phones are ringing off the hook hearing from constituents,” said Reynolds, who is worried tariffs will push up costs for his suppliers on imported garments. “As Republican representatives, they want to support the president. But also—it’s their job to support their constituents.”

Trump has 'botched' his whole tariff plan with a single slip of the tongue

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-has-botched-his-whole-tariff-plan-with-a-single-slip-of-the-tongue-report/ar-AA1CjLMc?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=NMTS&cvid=53128482b7cf4f4fa2b9c79970ced272&ei=11

The Atlantic's Jonathan Chait claimed in an article Friday that President Donald Trump's plan to encourage American manufacturing by imposing huge import tariffs was doomed from the moment he offered to negotiate with targeted countries.

"The key to making it work was to convince businesses that the new arrangement is durable," Chait wrote. "Nobody is going to invest in building new factories in the United States to create goods that until last week could be imported more cheaply unless they’re certain that the tariffs making the domestic version more competitive will stay in place."

The problem, according to Chait was, "Once you’ve said you might negotiate the tariffs, nobody is going to believe you when you change your mind and say you’ll never negotiate." And, indeed, just over two hours later, Chait wrote that Trump posted that he had just negotiated a possible agreement with Vietnam.

Suspected fertility mix-up leads father to learn he isn't daughter's biological parent

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-848721

The Health Ministry is investigating a suspected fertility treatment error after an urgent demand was made on Tuesday by the parties involved in the incident.

The error surfaced after a genetic test revealed that a man who raised a girl for years is not her biological father. The discovery was made during a routine medical examination the teenager underwent abroad due to a health issue.

Following the revelation, the father approached the doctor who had treated his wife at a central Israel fertility clinic. In an attempt to trace the origin of the error, he requested information about other patients who underwent embryo transfers around the same time. The doctor, in violation of medical privacy laws, disclosed the identity of another woman who had undergone treatment during that period.