New York Times: “The question of what is true — or at least what can be proven — is at the heart of any trial. But this particular defendant, accused by the Manhattan district attorney’s office of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal, has spent five decades spewing thousands and thousands of words, sometimes contradicting himself within minutes, sometimes within the same breath, with little concern for the consequences of what he said.”
“Mr. Trump has treated his own words as disposable commodities, intended for single use, and not necessarily indicative of any deeply held beliefs. And his tendency to pile phrases on top of one another has often worked to his benefit, amusing or engaging his supporters — sometimes spurring threats and even violence — while distracting, enraging or just plain disorienting his critics and adversaries.”
David Frum: “Former Attorney General Bill Barr gave an interview to CNN on Friday to explain why he plans to vote for Donald Trump after previously denouncing him as unfit for office. Trump might be an unfit president, Barr conceded. Trump had only recently belittled Barr personally. But President Joe Biden might overregulate kitchen stoves, Barr complained, and faced with that dread possibility, Barr had to prefer Trump as the lesser evil.”
“Barr feels how he feels. But as a rational matter, he’s not thinking clearly. Even for a conservative Republican such as Barr who wants to maximize power for conservative Republicanism, Trump is a choice that makes sense only if you have no long-term imagination at all.”
“To see how wrong that choice is, consider a hypothetical: how much better Republicans’ political prospects would look today if the Electoral College had followed the popular vote in 2016, and Hillary Clinton had won the presidency that year.”
New York Times: “Beneath these public threats is a series of plans by Mr. Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regains the White House.”
“Some of these themes trace back to the final period of Mr. Trump’s term in office. By that stage, his key advisers had learned how to more effectively wield power and Mr. Trump had fired officials who resisted some of his impulses and replaced them with loyalists. Then he lost the 2020 election and was cast out of power.”
Antiwar protests at Columbia University have spurred similar protest encampments at countless more major American universities in the past week. University administrations in cities and towns across the country have directed law enforcement to break up the peaceful protests, with increasingly violent results. Over the past two days, law enforcement in Atlanta deployed tasers and tear gas against student protesters at Emory University, according to the student newspaper and videos taken at the scene.
In Boston, MA, police clashed with protesters at Emerson College and arrested more than 100 of them after sweeping an encampment at Boylston Place Alley. Dozens more protesters were arrested at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California on Wednesday night.
Even in the face of escalating violence from law enforcement, more solidarity encampments sprung up on Thursday morning at Northwestern University, Cornell, Princeton, Ohio State University, George Washington University, University of Rochester, Indiana University, Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, the City College of New York, and more. Student and faculty protesters are demanding both an end to the Israel-Hamas war, and that their universities divest from companies that profit from the war like weapons manufacturers.
US Army engineers have started building (w/visuals) a floating pier for the passage of humanitarian aid off the coast of Gaza. The pier is expected to be completed by early May and is estimated to help unload as many as 2 million meals per day from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
More than 1,000 US troops are estimated to be involved in building the pier; however, the troops won’t be setting foot onto the Gaza Strip as part of an order from President Joe Biden. A temporary causeway connecting the pier to the shore is being assembled at sea. At least 150 trucks would receive the aid using the causeway and distribute the meals to the enclave’s roughly 2.3 million people. Large swaths of the population face starvation, according to international groups.
Separately, an Egyptian delegation arrived in Israel Friday to restart talks over hostage-release negotiations with Hamas. Roughly 100 hostages abducted from Israel during Hamas’ Oct. 7 raid remain captive.
“The Biden administration is reversing course on its plan to ban menthol cigarettes, after the White House weighed the potential public-health benefits of banning minty smokes against the political risk of angering Black voters in an election year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Donald Trump’s allies are quietly drafting proposals that would attempt to erode the Federal Reserve’s independence if the former president wins a second term, in the midst of a deepening divide among his advisers over how aggressively to challenge the central bank’s authority,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“At the low point of President Joe Biden’s polling this winter, top New York Democratic donors pushed to bring the legendary Democratic politico Rahm Emanuel back from his posting in Japan to run the re-election campaign,” Semafor reports. “The donor-led push — like most efforts to influence Biden’s tight inner circle — was received coolly in Wilmington and Tokyo.”
US regulators launch new probe of Tesla after 2 million cars recalled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reviewing a December recall on Tesla’s autopilot feature, focusing on whether the electric vehicle company adequately remedied the issue. The probe comes after at least 20 crashes have occurred involving cars that received Tesla’s autopilot software update.
Key US inflation measure rises in March. The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures costs consumers pay across a wide swath of items, excluding food and energy, rose 2.8% year-over-year and 0.3% month-over-month in March. The latest data match the figures in February. The index is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.
Federal Student Aid head to step down in June amid FAFSA fallout. Richard Cordray will leave the Education Department office that oversees the Free Application for Federal Student Aid program, the largest provider of student financial aid in the US. The announcement comes amid delays—partly due to glitches and errors—in the rollout of a revamped FAFSA process.
“Both Democrats and Republicans are piling on after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem revealed in her upcoming memoir that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy named Cricket because of the dog’s alleged misbehavior,” Politico reports.
“The mother of three and former congress member has seen her political caché skyrocket in recent years and was reportedly a top contender to become Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate. But as the gruesome tale, first reported by The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly, picked up steam on Friday, so did questions about Noem’s vice presidential chances.”
David Ignatius: “The United States might be stumbling toward a decline from which few great powers have ever recovered. It has many of the tools of national recovery but doesn’t yet have a shared recognition of the problem and how to fix it.”
“That’s not a quote from a MAGA or progressive leaflet. It’s a summary of a startling new study by Rand that was commissioned by the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment. It should serve as a loud wake-up call for America in this crucial election year.”
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