MATT BERG
& CROOKED MEDIA

TUESDAY
APRIL 8, 2025

When you sit behind a screen all day, it makes you a woman.” 

 
— Fox News host Jesse Watters, [who sits behind a screen]([link removed]) all day for a living.

FEAR FACTOR

Trump’s campaign to intimidate migrants is reaching new, nauseating heights. 

- President Donald Trump never tires of thinking up fresh ways to freak people out. His new idea: Insane, punitive financial penalties for migrants ordered to leave the U.S. His team now wants to hit them with a $998 fine for every additional day that they remain in the United States after getting such an order, [according to documents seen by Reuters]([link removed]). What’s more, Trump wants to make the fines retroactive for up to five years (which could add up to over $1 million) and to seize property if it isn’t paid, a senior official told the outlet. 

- Intimidation is the idea. “Their point isn’t really to enforce the law, it’s to project fear in communities,” Scott Shuchart, a top ICE policy official in the Biden administration, told the outlet.

- These absurd fines are just one part of the Trump administration’s campaign of fearmongering. Another recent example: FEMA [canceled $188 million in grants]([link removed]) to New York City, which were used to care for migrants. The rationale? The money allegedly supported illegal immigration. And to help track down undocumented migrants, the IRS [agreed to share private taxpayer information]([link removed]) with immigration authorities, according to a new court filing.
 

- Migrants aren’t the only ones being targeted by the president. Amir Makled, an attorney in Michigan who’s representing a pro-Palestinian protestor, was [detained by federal agents]([link removed]) at the Detroit Metro Airport last weekend. The agents tried to take his phone, but he refused to hand it over, and was eventually released. “I don’t know what triggered this,” he said. “They wouldn’t tell me.” Well, that’s not authoritarian behavior at all!

 
The Supreme Court is pumping the brakes on some of Trump’s worst impulses… without fully stopping them.

- The Supreme Court [unanimously ruled]([link removed]) on Monday night that Trump actually shouldn’t be able to deport [innocent people to a notorious El Salvador mega-prison]([link removed]) without giving them a chance to challenge the order. But that didn’t stop Team Orange from declaring victory: The Supreme Court also ruled that Trump can keep deporting people under a 227-year-old law meant only to be used during wartime. 
 

- The stakes are extremely high: “Even if they do not claim to be targeting American citizens, as they ramp this up — which, of course, is what they plan to do — American citizens will be ensnared in it,” Crooked’s Jon Lovett said on today’s [Pod Save America episode]([link removed]).

Hard to believe we’re not even three months into this new presidency, with [checks notes] [1,382 days to go]([link removed]).

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WHAT ELSE?

[The stock market fell yet again]([link removed]), shaking off an earlier bout of optimism that Donald Trump might negotiate deals on tariffs. China threatened to “fight to the end.” Things still aren’t looking great, and Trump is tuning out the markets and media coverage, [advisers tell the Atlantic]([link removed]). Okay, Donny, now is NOT the time to practice self-care and ignore all the terrible news.

[The Supreme Court today paused a lower court’s order]([link removed]) that would’ve forced the Trump administration to rehire some 16,000 federal workers fired in February. It’s a win for Trump, but with limited impact: A Maryland judge issued a similar injunction to rehire federal workers, and the Supreme Court didn’t include that ruling in its case today.

[Trump’s people have begun discussing a massive military parade]([link removed]) in Washington, D.C. on June 14… which just happens to be the Orange Man’s birthday. Nothing says democracy like tanks rolling down the streets of the nation’s capital! The White House is denying this would be Trump’s birthday party but… c’mon. We all know he makes everything about himself.
 
[Budget airline Avelo will begin helping ICE with deportation flights]([link removed]) from Arizona starting in May. “We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” CEO Andrew Levy said in a statement. Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!
 
[The National Park Service restored an Underground Railroad website]([link removed]) prominently featuring Harriet Tubman after public backlash. Why the backlash? Because they took her image down and replaced it with an image of postage stamps highlighting “Black/White cooperation.” Who would’ve seen that backlash coming!

[HHS Secretary and dead brainworm host body Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told]([link removed]) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending adding fluoride to water — which is scientifically proven to help prevent tooth decay and is safe to consume in small amounts. In fact, the CDC even listed the practice as a [top 10 public health achievement]([link removed]) of the LAST CENTURY.

WE'RE ALL FRIENDS HERE
 
If you're looking for the best way to keep supporting our work at Crooked Media, subscribe to Friends of the Pod. We just made the subscription better than ever, and now you can enjoy Offline and Lovett or Leave It ad-free! And for the month of April we’re offering a 30-day free trial–no commitment, just pure ad-free joy. 
 
When you subscribe, you’ll also unlock ad-free Pod Save America and Pod Save the World, exclusive content like Pollercoaster with Dan Pfeiffer, and you’ll be ushered into our amazing Discord community where you can process the news with other anxious-yet-civically-minded people like yourself. Your subscription helps power everything we do here at Crooked.
 
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[Scientists successfully genetically engineered three wolves]([link removed]) to closely resemble dire wolves, which went extinct more than 10,000 years ago. That’s cool and all, but wake me up when we bring back the woolly mammoths. (Unless I can have one of these wolves as a sidekick… then we’re talking.) 

[A new digital scan of the Titanic wreckage revealed new details]([link removed]) about the ship’s final hours, confirming that operators worked until the last moment to help save people: “They kept the lights and the power working to the end, to give the crew time to launch the lifeboats safely with some light instead of in absolute darkness,” Titanic analyst Parks Stephnson told BBC.

[NASA astronaut Jonny Kim reached the International Space Station]([link removed]) this week, but that’s not what’s drawing all the attention. It’s his resumé: He was also a Navy Seal and a Harvard doctor before launching into space. Reactions range from impressed to dismayed: “This guy is every Asian kid’s worst nightmare,” according to [one influencer’s viral video]([link removed]) about Kim, only half-joking.
 

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