Stranger Than Fiction and News Dump for April 21, 2025

Let’s start tonight with Minnesota’s strangely stupid Republican officials. (Note: I deliberately write “Republican officials.” Not “Republicans.” I know there are many Republicans who are embarrassed by these clowns and afraid for the future of their party and country.)

So—begin with Tom Emmer, Congressional Representative for Minnesota’s Sixth District and majority whip for Republicans in the House of Representatives. Emmer has embarrassed Minnesota with his lapdog allegiance to Trump. Appearing on CNN, he repeatedly refused to rule out deporting U.S. citizens, despite the fact that this is clearly illegal and unconstitutional. Here’s the MN Reformer reporting:

“The question has arisen recently, as President Donald Trump suggested his administration could “deport” U.S. citizens. 

“’The homegrowns are next,’ Trump said last week during a meeting with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. 

“CNN’s Dana Bash asked Emmer, who is also the House GOP whip, about the issue during his appearance the network’s State of the Union talk show.

“’Do you think the federal government has any legal authority to [deport] American citizens?’” 

“Emmer declined to answer the question, instead offering a lengthy response about the administration’s ongoing enforcement actions against non-citizens.

“Bash tried several times to steer Emmer back to the question of U.S. citizens. “What about the idea that the White House says it is looking into, whether or not U.S. citizens who are convicted of violent crimes can be imprisoned in El Salvador?” she asked. Emmer once again dodged and attempted to steer the discussion back toward the treatment of non-citizens.

“Bash gave it one more try: “I just want to give you one more chance to say whether or not you’re okay with U.S. citizens — the idea of it. I know it’s not happening. But he has actively said more than once that they are looking into it. Would you be okay with that?”

“Emmer, for a third time, refused to answer.”

Last week, I noted the election of the 7th District Republican chair, Brett Bussman, a flat earther who believes the moon landings were faked, the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center was a “controlled demolition,” and also thinks that we are being harmed by “satanic chemtrails” in the sky.

This week’s entries in the “most embarrassing Minnesota Republican” competition include the eight Republican legislators who introduced a bill to classify mRNA vaccines as bioweapons and make their manufacture, possession, or use a crime punishable by 20 years in prison. (I’m glad I already got my senior citizen COVID booster shot!)

And here’s the rest of the news dump for Monday, April 21. Sorry—it’s not nearly as amusing as the antics of MN Republicans.

Recent leaks highlight the strange ways that government policy develops in the Trump White House. The partial roll-back of tariffs offers a prime example.  

[Wall Street Journal] “They needed to get the president alone.

“On April 9, financial markets were going haywire. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessentand Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wanted President Trump to put a pause on his aggressive global tariff plan. But there was a big obstacle: Peter Navarro, Trump’s tariff-loving trade adviser, who was constantly hovering around the Oval Office. …

“So that morning, when Navarro was scheduled to meet with economic adviser Kevin Hassett in a different part of the White House, Bessent and Lutnick made their move, according to multiple people familiar with the intervention. 

“They rushed to the Oval Office to see Trump and propose a pause on some of the tariffs—without Navarro there to argue or push back. They knew they had a tight window. The meeting with Bessent and Lutnick wasn’t on Trump’s schedule.

“The two men convinced Trump of the strategy to pause some of the tariffs and to announce it immediately to calm the markets. They stayed until Trump tapped out a Truth Social post, which surprised Navarro, according to one of the people familiar with the episode.” 

And then there’s the melt-down at the Defense Department. No problem—the United States doesn’t have to worry about any enemies, right? Three top aides to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were terminated last week, and another is on is way out.

[Politico] “The changes will leave Hegseth without a chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, or senior adviser in his front office.

“’There is a complete meltdown in the building, and this is really reflecting on the secretary’s leadership,’ said a senior defense official. ‘Pete Hegseth has surrounded himself with some people who don’t have his interests at heart.’

“This week’s terminations follow a purge of top military officers in February, including former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti. 

“’There probably will be more chaos,’ said a third defense official. ‘It certainly reinforces the fear factor, awareness that no one’s job is safe.’”

“Probably more chaos”? Yep, and it didn’t take long to surface.

[New York Times] “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.

“Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.”

The big law firms that capitulated to Trump’s bullying may see more bullying ahead.

[New York Times] “When some of the nation’s biggest law firms agreed to deals with President Trump, the terms appeared straightforward: In return for escaping the full force of his retribution campaign, the firms would do some free legal work on behalf of largely uncontroversial causes like helping veterans.

“Mr. Trump, it turns out, has a far more expansive view of what those firms can be called on to do.

“Over the last week, he has suggested that the firms will be drafted into helping him negotiate trade deals.

“He has mused about having them help with his goal of reviving the coal industry.

“And he has hinted that he sees the promises of nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services that he has extracted from the elite law firms — including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher — as a legal war chest to be used as he wishes.” 

A new policy, secretly adopted by the Social Security Administration, will penalize legal immigrants and cost the government billions. The new policy cancels the Enumeration Beyond Entry program, which was implemented in 2017 under the first Trump administration to automatically issue Social Security numbers to non-citizens granted work authorization. Representative Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA), has launched an investigation and has written a letter to the SSA demanding that it reverse the policy, which he says “increases costs and decreases efficiency and potentially violates multiple federal laws.”

[Popular Information] “The agreement, known as Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE), benefits both the work-authorized non-citizens, who receive their cards in the mail as part of the application process, and the government, which does not need to spend time and money processing separate applications for millions of Social Security numbers. In the 2024 fiscal year, there were over 3.24 million initial Employment Authorization Documents approved by USCIS.”

An internal SSA memo details some of the costs of cancellation.

“Damage to SSA operations. The SSA memo says pausing the EBE program ‘will cause customer confusion, additional field office traffic, and potentially increase the risk of issuing multiple [Social Security numbers] to the same person.’ An SSA source told Popular Information that the freeze will require 60,000 to 75,000 additional people per week to visit a field office.

“Increased costs. It costs $8.00 to issue a Social Security card through the EBE program and $55.80 at a field office.”