Mehbe an EMP gun. Helicopters stand no chance vs those.
Senate to pull an all-nighter to confirm Dan Caine to lead Joint Chiefs
The Senate planned to work through the night Thursday to confirm President Donald Trump’s choice to be chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Democrats blocked a quick vote on the nominee to protest his firing of Gen. C.Q. Brown as the military’s top officer.
Majority Leader John Thune set up a series of votes starting at 1 a.m. Friday to confirm retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine to lead the Joint Chiefs.
The move came after Democrats, led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, blocked Republican efforts to quickly vote on Caine before a two-week recess. It is part of a broader effort to obstruct Trump’s agenda that included New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s marathon speech last week.
The group of Democrats blocking a swift vote are angry by what they view as the unwarranted removal of Brown and his replacement by someone they see as less qualified, according to a Senate Democratic aide who was granted anonymity to discuss party strategy.
Caine has won bipartisan support and will likely be confirmed comfortably despite Democratic objections to Brown’s firing. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the three-star general in a 23-4 vote.
Still, many Democrats see the firings of Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and top lawyers in each of the military services as the politicization of the military by Trump.
“In just the last two months, President Trump has fired Gen. C.Q. Brown and Adm. Lisa Franchetti,” Warren said at an Armed Services subcommittee hearing Wednesday. “It sends a chilling message about who is and who is not welcome in our military.”
Republicans criticized Democrats for delaying the inevitable. Armed Services Chair Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said there is no reason to delay the confirmation given the bipartisan support for Caine.
“We’re going to stay all night” until Caine is confirmed, said Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“He’s going to get a really big vote here,” Sullivan said. “So why are we delaying it? I don’t know.”
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/04/10/congress/comer-calls-in-dem-governors-00285200
Masters leaderboard day one.
https://www.masters.com/en_US/scores/index.html
Ilhan Omar passes on Senate run in Minnesota
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) announced on Thursday that she would be seeking reelection in the House in Minnesota, ending speculation over whether she would mount a Senate run for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s (D-Minn.) seat.
“At a time when our rights are under attack, it is more important than ever to fight back against the chaos, corruption, and callousness of the Trump Administration,” she said in a statement.
“I am excited to announce I am running for reelection for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District to keep standing up for our rights in the face of authoritarianism,” she continued.
Omar, part of the progressive “squad” in the House who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, had been mulling a potential Senate bid. Other notable members of the party who have announced bids include Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and former state Sen. Melisa López Franzen.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has already passed on a Senate bid, but Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) could also jump into the race.
Among some of the notable names cropping up on the GOP side who have announced Senate bids include former Senate candidate Royce White, who lost to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in November, and retired Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze.
The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates Smith’s seat “lean Democrat.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5243868-ilhan-omar-minnesota-seeking-reelection/amp/
Deep dive on upcoming Supreme Court decision on Trump executive power
long article better go to sauce:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/will-the-court-overturn-a-1930s-precedent-to-expand-presidential-power-again/
BRICS got BTFO, so China is trying to act like they got some cards to play. No one gunna work with China or else they get tariff'd. Get rekt.
China reaches out to others as Trump layers on tariffs
https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-reaches-others-trump-layers-054142766.html
Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸
@Bubblebathgirl
Parker Jensen got suspended from school for seven days because he asked why US flags weren’t displayed in each classroom as required by Maryland law.
Parker is suing Baltimore Public Schools.
Good. They broke the law and punished him for exercising his right to free speech.
https://x.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1910338385681535341
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims. They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World. Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114313927527638500
Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
UNREAL. Democrats in Colorado are pushing through a RADICAL transgender bill that would allow courts to take children away from parents who "misgender" or "deadname" their children.
The bill has passed the CO House and now goes to the State Senate. IT MUST NOT PASS!
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1909989959756394873
Two Texas Republicans throw support behind Paxton in brewing Senate fight
Two Texas House Republicans have endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2026 Senate bid — breaking with longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn for what’s anticipated to be a heated primary contest.
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, announced his backing of Paxton in a statement first shared to Fox News on Thursday.
“Attorney General Paxton is the conservative champion we need in the U.S. Senate,” Gooden wrote.
He added that Paxton “will take a sledgehammer to the establishment, secure the border, and fight hard for President Trump’s agenda. Ken Paxton has my complete and total endorsement.”
Gooden’s endorsement comes two days after Paxton, a widely known MAGA firebrand, launched his highly anticipated 2026 Senate campaign to challenge Cornyn.
“It’s definitely time for a change in Texas,” Paxton said. “We have another great U.S. senator in Ted Cruz. And it’s time we have another great senator that will actually stand up and fight for Republican values, fight for the values of the people of Texas, and also support Donald Trump.”
Gooden isn’t the first Texas Republican to throw his support behind Paxton. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) touted his backing of the attorney general’s campaign bid Wednesday.
“He’s a bulldog, and that’s what we need in the Senate,” Nehls told POLITICO.
Cornyn and Paxton are longtime ideological rivals. Paxton has repeatedly attacked Cornyn for what he views as inadequate embracing of Trump, and Cornyn recently bashed the Trump rabble-rouser over his legal scandals.
Cornyn recently earned the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who beat Cornyn in last year’s battle to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as the party leader in the chamber. The NRSC — led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — also said it would support the incumbent.
While both moves were expected, it signals the primary could get incredibly expensive — and that national Republicans could be willing to spend to back the longtime lawmaker.
But the Republican endorsement that will likely hold the most weight is Trump’s. While the president has yet to announce whom he’ll support, Trump and Paxton have long been closely aligned.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/04/10/congress/ken-paxton-john-cornyn-senate-endorsements-00007743
Whistleblower claims Meta helped China develop advanced AI to ‘outcompete American companies’
Meta actively helped China in the race to develop artificial intelligence as part of its failed effort to cozy up to Beijing, a former executive-turned-whistleblower said during a bombshell Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, who detailed her experience at Meta in the scathing memoir “Careless People,” testified that she witnessed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other executives lie to Congress and “repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values.”
During her opening statement, Wynn-William, Facebook’s former director of global public policy, told lawmakers that Meta began providing briefings to the Chinese Communist Party “as early as 2015” while pursuing “Project Aldrin” – a top-secret effort to gain access to China’s lucrative market.
“These briefings focused on critical emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence – explicit goal being to help China outcompete American companies,” said Wynn-Williams, who worked at the social media giant from 2011 to 2017.
“There’s a straight line you can draw from these briefings to the recent revelations that China is developing AI models for military use, relying on Meta’s Llama model,” she added.
The hearing before the Senate Judiciary’s subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism occurred after Meta obtained an emergency order barring Wynn-Williams from promoting or publicly discussing her allegations against the company. Despite that effort, her book “Careless People” surged to the top of best-sellers lists.
Wynn-Williams said Meta’s AI model Llama “has contributed significantly to Chinese advances in AI technologies like DeepSeek” – which sparked a US tech selloff earlier this year after releasing a model on par with American rivals that it claims cost less than $6 million to train.
“The greatest trick Mark Zuckerberg ever pulled was wrapping the American flag around himself and calling himself a patriot and saying he didn’t offer services in China while he spent the last decade building an $18 billion business there,” Wynn-Williams said.
“And he continues to wrap the flag around himself as we move into the next era of artificial intelligence.”
Meta saw the tech briefings with top-level Chinese officials as part of the “value proposition” it could offer to get into Beijing’s good graces, according to Wynn-Williams.
The whistleblower also detailed her allegation that the company developed a “censorship system” in 2015 on behalf of the CCP that risked exposing the data of American users and agreed to block accounts in 2017 operated by Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese billionaire and dissident, after facing pressure from China.
Committee chair Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused Meta of trying to silence Wynn-Williams – noting that she faces $50,000 in damages “every time she mentions Facebook in public” as a result of the arbitration ruling.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the $50,000 figure is from the separation agreement that Wynn-Williams signed when she left the company in 2017 and applies to any breach of contract, not just non-disparagement.
The company abandoned its efforts to enter the Chinese market in 2019.
Stone said Wynn-Williams’ “testimony is divorced from reality and riddled with false claims.”
“While Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our interest in offering our services in China and details were widely reported beginning over a decade ago, the fact is this: we do not operate our services in China today,” the spokesman added.
Hawley, who previously told The Post that he would be looking for instances where Facebook had lied under oath to Congress about its China ties, said he is pursuing a “full-scale investigation into the potential illegal behavior of Facebook.”
At one point during the hearing, Hawley referenced internal conversations in 2017 in which Facebook employees discussed taking down the dissident’s account. Months later, a Facebook executive testified to the Senate that action was taken through regular channels.
“Facebook received direct pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and bowed to it and discussed it internally and planned it and then lied about it to Congress,” Hawley said.
Hawley suggested that Zuckerberg misled Congress about the extent of his communication with China — despite Wynn-Williams’ assertion that top executives were in regular contact with Beijing. He also signaled that Meta may have violated a 2012 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission to protect the privacy of user data.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who also attended the hearing, said Facebook’s effort to penalize Wynn-Williams for going public “can be easily abused to silence her.”
Elsewhere, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said it was “disgusting and the height of hypocrisy for a supposed free speech champion, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, to use a campaign of threats and intimidation to try to silence you.”
In her memoir, Wynn-Williams detailed examples of what she called a “rotten company culture” reaching as high as Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg and current top policy executive Joel Kaplan.
The memoir alleged that Sandberg once spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young female assistant and later invited Wynn-Williams to “come to bed” during a long flight home from Europe, among other salacious claims.
As The Post has reported, watchdogs like the Tech Oversight Project have called on Congress to “drop the hammer” on Meta over its China dealings.
https://nypost.com/2025/04/09/business/meta-helped-china-develop-advanced-ai-to-outcompete-american-companies-whistleblower/
Trainwreck Tim Walz Took Minnesota From A $19 Billion Surplus To A $6 Billion Deficit
Americans have seen a lot of Tim Walz lately as the failed vice-presidential candidate has held town halls nationally criticizing national Republicans. In a telling interview, he admitted to the New York Magazine this week, “90% of the time, I can be really good, but about 10% of the time, I can be a train wreck.”
And in an interview with Jake Tapper that was itself something of a train wreck, he rejected the conclusion that every American with a pulse now acknowledges: that Walz and other Democrats should have forced Joe Biden off the presidential ticket in light of his obvious cognitive decline.
Walz is indeed often a train wreck, and as Walz tramps around the country seeking to place himself as the foil to congressional Republicans and Donald Trump, to really understand what a disaster he is, we only need to look at the ongoing mess he has left behind in Minnesota.
It is not hyperbole to say that Minnesota’s finances are in free fall. After boasting a record-setting $19 billion surplus in 2022 — larger than the full budgets of 20 U.S. states — the Minnesotans learned earlier this month that it faces a staggering $6 billion budget deficit. How did this happen? In 2023, Walz and his Democrat allies in the legislature embarked on the most reckless spending spree in Minnesota history, funneling billions into pet projects and giveaways for every left-wing constituency imaginable. The surplus wasn’t used to shore up Minnesota’s long-term financial stability or to return money to taxpayers. Instead, it was squandered in the most reckless fiscal step taken in Minnesota’s modern history.
Walz’s relationship with the truth has always been a distant one, and this case was no exception. Walz tried to falsely pin the financial crisis on the new Trump administration, despite state officials confirming that federal policy did not affect their budget projections.
Among the drivers of the state’s coming deficit is a stagnant Minnesota economy. Although once among the strongest in the country, the state now routinely ranks in the bottom 10 states for GDP growth. Job creation has stagnated, and businesses are increasingly looking elsewhere to expand or move. Meanwhile, Walz has increased tax burdens on individuals and businesses and made Minnesota one of the least competitive states for economic growth.
Contributing to the state’s fiscal woes is the immense fraud in Minnesota state programs, unlike anything in the state’s history. The Feeding Our Future scandal alone saw over $250 million stolen under Walz’s watch — the largest case of Covid-era fraud in the nation.
But it doesn’t stop there. Federal officials estimate that fraud across Minnesota’s public assistance programs under Walz exceeds $600 million, a scale described by the state’s former Democrat U.S. attorney as fundamentally different than anywhere else in the country. To date, Walz and his administration have fired no one for the immense incompetence and malfeasance that enabled such fraud.
As Walz hemorrhages taxpayer dollars due to fraud, Minnesota’s educational system has cratered. From 2014 to 2023, reading proficiency dropped by 8.2 percentage points, and math proficiency fell by 14.2 percentage points, despite significant increases in education spending. Under Tim Walz, most Minnesota kids can’t read or do math at grade level.
Compounding the issue, schools are facing financial turmoil due to reckless spending mandates and a focus on the woke agenda items passed by the Democrat legislature. According to an association representing Minnesota school districts, over 40 districts are running massive deficits, with some facing budget shortfalls in the tens of millions.
Tim Walz — the former schoolteacher — has left Minnesota’s education system in crisis.
Under Tim Walz’s leadership, public safety in Minnesota has collapsed. Violent crime has surged — Minneapolis saw 79 homicides last year, up nearly 160 percent since 2019 — while far-left prosecutors like Soros-backed Mary Moriarty let criminals walk and attack police.
Moriarty’s unethical prosecution of Trooper Ryan Londregan revealed the radical agenda now driving Minnesota’s justice system. Walz stayed silent, signaling to criminals that politics matter more than public safety. Police morale has cratered, recruitment lags, and victims’ families are left without justice.
The result? Minnesotans no longer feel safe in their own neighborhoods. That’s not just failed leadership — it’s a betrayal of government’s most basic duty: to protect its citizens.
Tim Walz has been a train wreck, and not just 10 percent of the time. And although Americans were given a glimpse of his record in Minnesota in 2024, that record grows more troubling as the consequences of his policies have played out. All of America should know that Minnesota was once the “State that Worked”. Under Tim Walz, that’s as gone, just like its absentee governor.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/04/09/trainwreck-tim-walz-took-minnesota-from-a-19-billion-surplus-to-a-6-billion-deficit/
Senior CIA Official Who Facilitated Biden’s Military COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Fired
Terry Adirim, a senior Central Intelligence Agency official and former senior defense official who played a pivotal and potentially illegal role in the Biden Administration’s military vaccine mandate, was recently fired from the agency, a source has exclusively revealed to Breitbart News.
https://12ft.io/proxy
Ryan Routh charged with first degree attempted murder by state of Florida
https://x.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1910305585658024207
Permanent Daylight Savings Time goes to senate
Senators are wading into the thorny issue of whether to “lock the clock” — that is, end the practice of changing the time twice a year to account for the shifting seasons.
At a hearing Thursday, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said there was general consensus among his colleagues that Americans should stop changing the clocks by adopting permanent daylight saving time — which makes it light later in the evening and later in the morning — or permanent standard time, which does the opposite. But there isn’t agreement on which standard to embrace.
The Senate unanimously passed legislation in 2022 from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to create permanent daylight saving time without requiring states already on permanent standard time to make the move. The bill’s passage at that time took many lawmakers by surprise, including those who said they would have hurried to the floor to block the request for speedy consideration had they known the measure was coming up for a vote. It later died in the House.
Scott said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “on board to lock the clock.” In December, Trump expressed support for ending the practice of changing time twice a year, but in March said it’s a “50/50 issue.”
He explained in remarks in the Oval Office, “If something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark.”
A White House spokesperson declined to clarify Trump’s stance further.
But Commerce Committee members also said they wanted to make sure states have latitude to make their own decisions on whether to use permanent daylight or standard time, weighing economic and health trade-offs.
“There are very real and complicated issues and countervailing arguments on both sides,” Cruz said. “There is widespread agreement on locking the clock … but the reason we’re holding these hearings is because these are real arguments and they have real impacts on people.”
Lawmakers heard Thursday from advocates on both sides of the issue, including the CEO of the National Golf Course Owner’s Association favoring permanent daylight saving time and a sleep medicine expert backing permanent standard time. Jay Karen, CEO of the NGCO, said that late afternoon golf activities account for a high share of revenue and that permanent daylight saving time would be a boon for outdoor recreation generally, leading to health benefits.
Karin Johnson, the sleep medicine doctor and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s advocacy committee, said permanent daylight saving time would be a “hidden mandate” that would wake Americans earlier and disrupt their circadian rhythms. She also pointed out that previous attempts to make this switch were abandoned. Permanent standard time would also lead to lower rates of depression and better sleep, she argued.
Cruz didn’t take a clear stance on whether he sided with permanent daylight saving time or standard time, but he argued that changing the clocks twice a year can indeed disrupt sleep.
“This leads to increased risks of health problems, including higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and even car accidents immediately following the time change,” Cruz said.
Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) said it’s important lawmakers be “thoughtful” about how time changes work state by state.
“What works in my home state of Delaware may not work in Washington state,” Blunt Rochester said. “It’s time to figure this out. People across our country are tired of the constant cycle of falling back and springing forward.”
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/04/10/congress/should-we-lock-the-clock-00283777
Facebook stored American user data in China
https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/1910072134904496637
After Trump’s Demands, Dean of Students Says College Diversity Offices Have No Plans To Cut Programming
Harvard College Dean of Students Thomas G. Dunne said in an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday that he does not expect the College’s diversity offices to be affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Less than a week after three federal agencies conditioned Harvard’s federal funding on cutting its DEI programs, Dunne said the DSO was “operating in the arena right now with the same plans that we had at the start of the year.”
The three offices — the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, the Office of BGLTQ Student Life, and the Women’s Center — are all housed under the DSO’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team.
The Trump administration’s demands to Harvard on Thursday asked the University to ax its DEI programs as the government reviews nearly $9 billion in funding commitments to Harvard and affiliated hospitals.
“DEI programs teach students, faculty, staff, and leadership to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes, which fuels division and hatred based on race, color, national origin, and other protected identity characteristics,” the letter read. “All efforts should be made to shutter such programs.”
But Dunne said he anticipated programming and events associated with the College’s diversity offices would continue as usual because they serve the entire student body.
“Those are events that are open to all students and so our expectation is that we continue the programs that we always have done,” Dunne said. “All students can and should be engaging with these centers.”
However, the fate of Harvard’s diversity offices will likely be decided by Harvard’s top brass: the Harvard Corporation and University President Alan M. Garber ’76, who must craft a response to Trump’s ultimatum. If Garber and the governing boards concede to the White House, the DSO may have little choice but to shutter its planned events — and potentially entire offices.
At the interview, which took place three days after Harvard announced that three international students’ visas had been revoked, Dunne said the DSO was developing a plan to ensure the College is “a supportive community” for international students.
The DSO met with international student leaders on Monday to discuss how to ensure international students can be supported by their Harvard peers — and how to keep Harvard’s students informed, Dunne said.
Dunnes said the College is looking for ways to make sure international students’ advising networks — including tutors, proctors, and Peer Advising Fellows — can address their emotional needs.
“If students need places to convene and support each other as students, we want to support that,” he said.
The DSO is also considering ways to help fund and organize events in collaboration with international student groups.
But Dunne said that “Harvard has to follow the law” on immigration enforcement.
Students should abide by “long-standing procedures” set by the Office of General Counsel for requests from law enforcement, Dunne said. The OGC’s guidance recommends that students contact the OGC and Harvard University Police Department if law enforcement officers ask them for documents or for access to nonpublic spaces.
Dunne also said the College is working to ensure international students are connected with advisers at the Harvard International Office, who can answer international students’ questions about their visas that may involve “individually specific processes and circumstances.”
“The best course of action is to get students connected with the people who are best suited to give that sort of information and directives to students,” he said.
Rising immigration fears have amped up the demands placed on the HIO during the season when staff are already working to prepare international students for status changes when they graduate, Dunne added, saying staff had put in “Herculean efforts to respond.”
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/9/dunne-dei-trump-nocuts/
Jason Cohen 🇺🇸
@JasonJournoDC
🚨NEW: Geraldo Rivera heaps praise on Trump over "BRILLIANT" tariff moves🚨
"I believe that he ambushed China … I just think he wants the best possible deal he can get the United States of America. God bless him for that. That's why people really dig the guy. That's why he's hard to beat. That charisma is unbelievable. I could sing his praises forever … He suckered China in."
@DailyCaller
https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1910101249514430936
Pritzker Says Harvard Is ‘All Over’ Supporting Students Whose Visas Were Revoked
Penny S. Pritzker ’81, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — said the University is working to support students whose visas had been revoked by the Trump administration in its push to deport international students involved in pro-Palestine protests on Tuesday.
“The department that handles that is all over it, and that they care very much about these students and are trying to help them,” she said when approached by a Crimson reporter after speaking to a packed Science Center lecture hall for Econ 10b, Harvard’s flagship introductory macroeconomics course.
Pritkzer’s comments come just two days after the Harvard International Office informed international students that it had discovered that three Harvard students and two graduates had their visas revoked as part of a “routine records review.” The HIO did not identify the students or explain why their visas were revoked.
The HIO’s Sunday email was sent as the Corporation, which Pritkzer helms, met with members of the Board of Overseers — the University’s second highest governing body — in Harvard Square to prepare a response to the White House’s $9 billion ultimatum. Days before the meeting, the Trump administration threatened to slash Harvard’s federal funding if it did not agree to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programming, ban masks at protests, and fully cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security — a drastic escalation that casted a shadow over the weekend meetings.
When asked whether Harvard would concede to the Trump administration’s demands, Pritzker stayed guarded in her reply.
“I can’t talk about any of that right now, I have to catch my plane,” she said. “The good news is we’re working hard to help Harvard students.”
But Harvard is strapped for time in crafting its reply to its fiercest critics in Washington. In the letter detailing demands to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, the White House demanded “immediate cooperation” in rolling out the changes before federal funding was slashed.
And Monday, the Cambridge City Council unanimously voted to call on the Corporation to refuse the administration’s demands and “safeguard academic independence, the rule of law, and democracy.” In the lead-up to the Corporation’s weekend meetings, more than 1,500 alumni also called on Harvard to “mount a coordinated opposition to these undemocratic attacks.”
Several members of the Board of Overseers told The Crimson after the weekend meetings that a response from Harvard was forthcoming — but since Thursday, neither Garber nor Pritkzer have issued a public reply to the demands.
Overseers and Corporation members were also expected to determine who would succeed outgoing Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana over the weekend. A source familiar with the process said that the announcement is expected very soon, but Pritzker said she was unfamiliar with the status of the search on Tuesday.
“I don’t know, I have no idea about that,” she said.
Khurana’s successor would need to be approved by a committee including members of the Corporation.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/9/Pritzker-Ec10-Visas/
Trump War Room
@TrumpWarRoom
It is official White House policy to IGNORE reporters' emails with pronouns in the signature👏
“I don’t respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts.” -
@PressSec Karoline Leavitt
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1909954689656832006
“Space Command will officially be assigned to build its headquarters in Huntsville.” -@RepMikeRogersAL
https://x.com/McCraryCyber/status/1909959079876850017
Justice Roberts halts Judge Beryl Howell's order to reinstate agency heads, temporary win for Trump
Calling the situation “untenable,” the Trump administration came to the Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon, asking the justices to block orders by federal judges in Washington, D.C., that instructed government officials to allow board members at two independent agencies to remain in office despite President Donald Trump’s attempts to fire them. Soon after, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay, which put those orders on hold while the justices consider the government’s request, and called for a response by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15.
D. John Sauer, Trump’s new solicitor general, told the justices that the dispute “raises a constitutional question of profound importance: whether the President can supervise and control agency heads who exercise vast executive power on the President’s behalf, or whether Congress may insulate those agency heads from presidential control by preventing the President from removing them at will.”
Trump, Sauer wrote, “should not be forced to delegate his executive power to agency heads who are demonstrably at odds with the Administration’s policy objectives for a single day — much less for the months that it would likely take for the courts to resolve this litigation.”
Sauer asked the justices to put orders by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras and Senior U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on hold while the Trump administration appeals, as well as an administrative stay
Sauer also urged the justices, whether they grant the government’s request to pause the district judges’ orders or not, to take up the dispute and rule on the merits of the cases, without waiting for the court of appeals to weigh in. Particularly if the district judges’ orders are not put on hold, Sauer suggested, the justices should order additional briefing and oral arguments in May, with a decision to follow by late June or early July.
The two agencies at the center of the dispute are the Merit Systems Protection Board, which oversees the federal government’s personnel practices, and the National Labor Relations Board, which protects the rights of employees in the private sector to join unions.
The MSPB has three members, at least one of which must be from a different political party than the other two. The members, who serve seven-year terms, are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
There are five members of the NLRB, each of whom is appointed for a five-year term by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Without Wilcox, the current board has only two members – Marvin Kaplan, the chair, and David Prouty – one short of the three needed for a quorum.
MSPB members can only be removed by the president for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Members of the NLRB can only be removed “upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”
Cathy Harris was appointed to the MSPB in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden for a term that was slated to expire in 2028. She became the chair of the agency in 2024. During her time in that role, the MSPB cleared almost its entire backlog – of nearly 4,000 cases – that had built up since 2017.
After Trump fired Harris on Feb. 10 of this year, she went to federal court, arguing that her termination violated federal law.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled for Harris, agreeing with her that the removal protections provided to members of the MSPB are constitutional under Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 1935 Supreme Court decision holding that although a president can generally fire subordinates for any reason, Congress can create independent, multi-member regulatory agencies whose commissioners can only be removed “for cause.” Contreras ordered the Trump administration to allow Harris to continue to serve until her term expires.
The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, holding that “for cause” restrictions on the removal of the CFPB director violate the Constitution, and Collins v. Yellen, striking down limitations on the president’s ability to remove the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, do not affect “the constitutionality of for-cause removal provisions for multimember bodies of experts heading an independent agency,” Contreras explained. To the contrary, he stressed, the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Seila Law “reaffirmed the constitutionality” of such boards, “as those agencies have a robust basis in this country’s history, and their members lack the power to act unilaterally.” And the MSPB is precisely the kind of board protected under Humphrey’s Executor, Contreras continued, because it “does not wield substantial executive power” but “rather spends nearly all of its time adjudicating ‘inward-facing personnel matters’ involving federal employees.”
Gwynne Wilcox was appointed to the NLRB in 2021 by Biden, and then appointed to a second term in 2023. When Trump fired her on Jan. 27, 2025, he said that she had not “been operating in a manner consistent with” the administration’s “objectives,” had issued decisions that had “vastly exceeded” the NLRB’s powers, and that he did not have confidence that she could “fairly evaluate matters” before the board or that she would “faithfully execute” the law governing the board.
Wilcox went to federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to be returned to office. She argued that her termination violated the federal law governing removal of NLRB members.
Senior U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Wilcox had been illegally fired, and she barred Kaplan from removing Wilcox or interfering with her ability to carry out her duties. Howell concluded that Humphrey’s Executor was “not only binding law,” but also a “well-reasoned reflection of the balance of powers sanctioned by the Constitution.” Moreover, she added, the power of the current NLRB “is, if anything, less extensive than that of the FTC” at the time of the court’s decision in Humphrey’s Executor.
A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused both judges’ orders. However, the full D.C. Circuit – by a vote of 7-4 – lifted those orders, allowing Harris and Wilcox “to continue exercising the President’s executive power over the President’s express objection,” the Trump administration contends.
Humphrey’s Executor does not bar the president from removing members of the MSPB and NLRB, Sauer asserted in his filing on Wednesday. In Humphrey’s Executor, Sauer explained, the court “recognized a narrow exception to the President’s removal power that, properly construed, extends only to ‘multimember expert agencies that do not wield substantial executive power.’” But that is exactly what the MSPB and the NLRB do, Sauer insisted, by “implementing and enforcing federal labor and civil-service laws.”
Lower courts, in ordering reinstatement of Harris and Wilcox, contended that Humphrey’s Executor is still good law, and they could not overrule it. The Supreme Court cautioned, the government continued, in Seila Law that Humphrey’s Executor is not a “freestanding invitation for Congress to impose additional restrictions” on the president’s power to remove executive officials.
But if for-cause removal laws like the ones at issue in these cases are constitutional under Humphrey’s Executor, Sauer added, it plans to ask the Supreme Court to “hold, after receiving full briefing and argument,” that the case was wrong and should be overturned. But in any event, Sauer noted, the district court’s orders should be put on hold for now even under a “narrower reader” of Humphrey’s Executor.
And in any event, Sauer continued, a stay of the orders by Contreras and Howell is also warranted because federal courts do not have the power to order the return of agency heads fired by the president – in fact, no court has ever done so until this year. The courts’ intervention in these cases, Sauer wrote, “has thus thrown the NLRB’s and MSPB’s operations into chaos, cast a cloud on the lawfulness of the agencies’ actions, left the President and the Senate uncertain about whether and when they may install new officers to succeed” Wilcox and Harris, and “undermined ‘the steady administration of the laws’ that” the Constitution “seeks to secure.”
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/orders-to-reinstate-agency-heads-on-hold-as-court-considers-trumps-appeal/