The Spectator

President Trump said that steel tariffs would be announced Monday — and that reciprocal tariffs against, among others, the European Union, were coming early this week. Yet questions remain whether these tariffs will go into effect, or if their announcement is being used as a bartering chip, as with other tariff threats last week.The threat of tariffs reemerged after Trump met with Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba last week to discuss Japanese investment in US Steel. This 25 percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum appears to be an attempt to protect US and Japanese shared interests. This tariff is set to be placed on all nations equally and is not a bargaining tool, unlike those with which Trump threatened Canada and Mexico last week.

Washington, DC has been struck with DoGE (Department of Government Efficiency) fever — just as everyone started getting over the bugs they all caught at from Trump’s inauguration. Elon Musk and his gang of twenty-something whiz kids are making their mark across the federal government, starting with USAID, which Musk has repeatedly criticized in strident terms as being the core of the corruption he’s seeking to root out.

President Donald Trump warned Hamas that there would be “hell to pay” when he returned to the White House if the terrorist organization continued to hold the hostages that it and Gazans have held for almost 500 days. Around eighty hostages, living and murdered, remain in Gaza.Last night, Trump laid out what “hell to pay” could look like: a potential American takeover of the Gaza Strip, maximum pressure against Iran and arms shipments to Israel.Trump, who famously compared the Arab-Israeli conflict to a “real-estate deal” in 2015, proposed a radical reshifting of the entire region, alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the first foreign leader he’s hosted in person in the White House in his second term.

Elon Musk claims that President Trump and DoGE are shutting down USAID.He made his claim on X Spaces last night following the administrative leave of two senior security officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) after they denied the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE) the ability to receive sensitive data from the agency, the Guardian reports.DoGE was created on Trump’s first day to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Headed by Musk, the department has already taken action to bring to light extensive federal spending and has been granted access to the US Treasury’s federal payment system.Musk said that USAID is beyond repair.

Amid the tragedy of a deadly plane and helicopter crash at Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport that has shaken the entire country, it’s becoming increasingly clear how many close calls have been avoided over the years — and that changes may be coming to the status quo.While it’s been almost two decades since the last major commercial airline crash in America, reports are beginning to emerge about how many near misses have happened, especially in DC’s busy airspace.Just days before an army helicopter collided with the plane coming in from Wichita, Kansas, several other planes had already aborted landings at Reagan due to helicopters in the way.

Elon Musk’s influence on the federal government has reached new heights, with a memo going out to millions of federal employees with a simple message: get on board or take a permanent, (and expensive!) paid vacation.The Trump administration just sent a DoGE-infused ultimatum to much of the federal workforce: opt in to working in your office or take our buyout. According to the White House, “We’re five years past Covid and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office.” President Donald Trump and Musk have made it clear that a return to in-person work is nonnegotiable. The ultimatum, described in a post as “a fork in the road,” would bring the federal government in-line with where the private sector has been moving in recent months and years: back to the office.

President Donald Trump and Colombian president Gustavo Petro feuded yesterday over the return of immigrants living illegally in the US, but after Trump’s threats of tariffs, Petro agreed to send his own plane to pick up the criminals. Trump’s plans to return the immigrants back to their country of citizenship were temporarily thwarted by Petro, who denied the flights permission to land. He claimed he rejected the repatriation flights because of the lack of “dignity and respect” shown to these Colombians, as they would have arrived on military planes while handcuffed. Petro stated, “We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals.

Days into his presidency, Donald Trump is delivering on one of the campaign promises that no doubt led to his re-election.“Deportation flights have begun,” Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, wrote on X, along with photos of illegal migrants handcuffed and boarding military planes. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences.”The deportations are part of sweeping immigration changes Trump has implemented since being sworn-in as commander-in-chief on Monday. Remember that immigration was consistently top of mind for voters during the last cycle.