Happy Thursday! Many thanks to the more than 1,400 of you who participated in our annual TMD March Madness pool—and congratulations to Bradley H., who had the winning bracket! We’ll be in touch about your prize soon.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on nearly all of his tailored, or “reciprocal,” tariffs hours after they took effect. The reversal excluded China, which Trump said would face a 125 percent tariff “effective immediately.” Meanwhile, goods from all other countries will be subject to a blanket 10 percent tax. Earlier on Wednesday, China had announced 84 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports, as the country vows to “fight to the end” in the escalating trade war. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the adjusted duties.
- The stock market rallied on Wednesday following Trump’s suspension of parts of his sweeping tariffs rollout. The S&P 500 rose 9.5 percent, its largest single-day gain since 2008. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite increased 12.2 percent—its best day since 2001—and the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up by 7.8 percent. All three indices are down from their close on April 2, “Liberation Day,” when Trump announced his sweeping tariffs.
- Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American woman who was detained by Russian authorities in February 2024 and later sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason, was freed on Thursday. Karelina is “on a plane back home to the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday. U.S. officials considered her arrest, which followed her donation of $52 to a pro-Ukraine charity, a wrongful detention. Her release was reportedly part of a prisoner exchange, though it remains unclear which detainees were returned to Russia as part of the agreement.
- The Treasury Department on Wednesday unveiled sanctions on five entities and one individual connected to Iran’s nuclear program. U.S. officials said the sanctioned entities, all based in Iran, were responsible for “procuring, or manufacturing, critical technologies” for organizations involved in the country’s nuclear program. The sanctioned individual—an Iranian national, Majid Mosallat—is the managing director for one of the sanctioned entities and allegedly involved in facilitating illegal shipments to assist Tehran’s nuclear development. The latest sanctions come ahead of planned negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials, which Trump said are set to begin Saturday.
- The Department of Homeland Security announced plans on Wednesday to begin monitoring immigrants’ social media accounts for antisemitic content “as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests.” According to a notice from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the move is intended to “protect the homeland from extremists and terrorist aliens, including those who support antisemitic terrorism, violent antisemitic ideologies and antisemitic terrorist organizations” including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The new policy will empower immigration authorities to factor in antisemitic social media posts when considering the status of green-card applicants and student visa holders.
- The Senate voted 52-44 on Wednesday to confirm Paul Atkins as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Atkins, a Wall Street consultant and former SEC commissioner, will now oversee the independent agency tasked with enforcing laws against market manipulation. He is expected to champion deregulation and a friendlier approach to cryptocurrency in the role.
GOP Rifts Emerge Over Budget Plan
A vote was scheduled for the House of Representatives to pass the Senate’s amendment to its budget resolution Wednesday—until there wasn’t.
House members gathered in the chamber around 6 p.m. for a series of four votes, the third of which was on the blueprint to unlock the budget reconciliation process, by which Republicans can pass President Donald Trump’s key legislative priorities with a 51-vote simple majority in the Senate. But when the time to vote on the measure came, GOP leadership stalled for more than an hour as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tried to sway holdouts. He could afford to lose the support of no more than three Republicans—and many more had already threatened to vote against the measure. Ultimately, the last-minute lobbying failed, and Johnson pulled the resolution from the vote series and punted it to today.
Johnson now has one more day to push the plan through before the chamber breaks for a planned two-week recess. But yesterday’s chaotic scenes laid bare GOP divisions as the speaker attempts to shepherd Trump’s domestic agenda through the lower chamber’s narrow and fractious Republican majority. And as the clock ticks down, it remains unclear whether ...
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Today’s Must-Read
Decline doesn’t solely mean impoverishment; it means degeneration, to sink backward and down. And that is what the United States’ current leadership class is choosing for this country by willfully dismantling the free-market system, abandoning America’s role as a global leader, and degrading the separation of powers and rule of law. Even worse, it is doing so based on a suite of false assumptions: that Americans are weak, unable to compete in an open market, and incapable of responding to any incentives or exhortations more high-minded than rank self-interest or partisan contempt. The underlying assumption, held by leaders across the political spectrum, is that appealing to America’s loftiest ideals for reasons unrelated to partisan advantage is for suckers. We reject that premise.
Toeing the Company Line
He Just Likes Tariffs
And he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
The Try-It Phase
What could go wrong?
Ron DeSantis Hasn’t Changed, But the World Around Him Has
On the Florida governor’s plans—and those of his wife—in a Trump-dominated GOP.
We Must Transcend Partisan Politics to Defend Our Universities
Protecting academic freedom and university federal funding is essential to the future of our country.
Is It True That American-Born Workers ‘Gained Zero Net Jobs’ Under Biden?
No. Native-born employment increased by about 7.5 million jobs.
Pronouns In Bio
Theyman’s Terms.
The Rights of Deportees
‘Get your hands off my war.’
Worth Your Time
- Ahead of Passover, Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy considered a complex question: Why are Israelis so happy? “Despite constantly facing vicious enemies and enduring a year and a half of sustained fighting and funerals, Israel ranks in the top 10 countries with the highest levels of happiness, according to the newly released 2025 World Happiness Report. … Even advanced Western nations such as Great Britain and the United States, in 23rd and 24th place, respectively, have a glee gap with Israel,” the pair wrote for Tablet magazine. “Israel’s historical optimism proves that identity is built through shared stories and values, not political agendas and competing grievances. When nurtured thoughtfully, group identity doesn’t compromise our freedom; it enhances our journey, filling our free, prosperous lives with the sounds of others, inspired by the ideas of our ancestors. The West needs good tribalism: A healthy commitment to community, connectedness, and history anchors us. It motivates us to defend ourselves when necessary, while inspiring us always to build a better world. That’s the essence of most Israelis’ Zionism, which many just call patriotism. And that’s the essence of the Passover seder message, too.”
Presented Without Comment
Wall Street Journal: Trump Says He Did Tariff Pause Because of ‘Yippy’ Reaction
President Trump said that he decided to pause the bulk of his reciprocal tariff program because of growing concern about the economy. “They were getting yippy,” Trump said when asked why he enacted a temporary rollback. “They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”
Also Presented Without Comment
The White House on X: DO NOT RETALIATE AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED
Also Also Presented Without Comment
New York Times: Councilwoman Who Bit Officer Has Charges Dropped After ‘Healing’ Course
In the Zeitgeist
The Boston Red Sox are familiar with having a national spotlight. But now, Netflix is bringing the baseball team’s off-the-field realities to the screen. A camera crew followed the team through the 2024 Major League Baseball season for an eight-episode documentary series, which hit the streaming service earlier this week.
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