Category: Look Out for the Little Guy

Trump’s Tariff-Driven Agriculture Policy Risks Hurting U.S. Farmers and Exacerbates Trade Deficit

Donald Trump has announced that U.S. farmers must increase their agricultural production starting April 2, as he intends to impose tariffs on imported agricultural products. In a post on Truth Social, Trump directed farmers to “get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States,” signaling a push against imports. The specifics of which products would be affected and any potential exceptions were left unclear, raising concerns among agricultural experts.

Current data reveals that U.S. agriculture is in a precarious state, with imports surpassing exports significantly. According to USDA figures, agricultural exports fell to approximately $178 billion in 2023, down $17 billion from the previous year. Concurrently, the U.S. agriculture trade deficit has reached a staggering $49 billion, illustrating the adverse impact of Trump’s tariffs in the long-term, while his policies disproportionately benefit wealthy elites over struggling farmers.

At present, a considerable portion of U.S. agricultural imports is categorized as horticultural products, which encompass fruits, vegetables, and more. Furthermore, imports from Mexico and Canada comprise a critical share, with Mexico alone contributing $45.4 billion in agricultural goods in 2023, positioning itself as the largest supplier to the U.S. This reliance highlights the pitfalls of Trump’s trade approach, which is often mired in empty promises of protectionism.

Despite ongoing pressures, the Trump administration remains committed to a tariffs-based strategy, previously arguing that such measures protect domestic agricultural interests. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins claimed tariffs were part of a successful toolkit, yet the deteriorating trade balance undermines this assertion and reveals a lack of genuine strategy to support American farmers.

Trump’s recent calls for ramping up domestic production come on the heels of a broader $1 billion strategy to combat avian influenza, a move intended to alleviate rising egg prices and declining milk production. However, many question the efficacy of these measures amid the chaos and misinformation characterizing Trump’s approach to economic policy.

Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze Threatens Disabled Americans, Transgender Youth, and Refugees

President Donald Trump’s recent actions reveal a concerning trend that affects vulnerable populations across America, hinging on an alarming federal funding freeze aimed at crippling essential services for disabled Americans, transgender youth, and refugees. A sweeping memo from the Office of Management and Budget initiated a pause on trillions in federal grants and loans, causing immediate repercussions. Nonprofits and healthcare organizations reported delays in receiving vital funding, which ultimately hinders their ability to assist those in need.

For instance, a West Virginia nonprofit that facilitates employment for people with disabilities was unable to support a new employee due to delayed federal funds. Although an immediate reversal was initiated, many organizations remain in limbo regarding access to funds, with even federal judges unable to fully resolve the situation. This disruption particularly hurt the Appalachian Center for Independent Living, which had to lay off critical staff members, jeopardizing their support for individuals in need of services.

Furthermore, Trump’s executive order targeting federal support for gender-affirming care poses a severe threat to the health and well-being of transgender youth. Hospitals in major U.S. cities have temporarily suspended medical treatments, creating a healthcare crisis in regions previously regarded as safe havens for such care. This order not only restricts access to necessary medical interventions but also threatens legal repercussions for caregivers and healthcare providers, intensifying an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.

As if that isn’t troubling enough, Trump’s administration has instigated a funding freeze that impacts refugee resettlement efforts, leaving nearly 6,000 refugees in a precarious state. The halt on foreign aid severely limits organizations like Global Refuge, which relies on federal funds to assist new arrivals in navigating life in the U.S. The fear of future funding cuts plagues these nonprofits, with many expressing that such actions could result in dire consequences for marginalized communities reliant on their support.

The ongoing fallout from Trump’s unprecedented maneuvers represents a targeted assault on programs that uphold the dignity and rights of vulnerable citizens. With alarming guidance from figures like Elon Musk advocating for slashed federal spending, the consequences of these policies threaten to erode fundamental aspects of American democracy and humanitarian support. Such actions exemplify a racist and authoritarian agenda, fostering an environment that endangers lives and livelihoods.

(h/t: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/politics/nonprofits-funding-trump-freeze/index.html)

Trump administration files statement supporting a Catholic high school that fired a gay teacher

The Trump administration filed a “statement of interest” supporting an Indiana Catholic School being sued by a former teacher who was fired for being in a same-sex marriage.

Joshua Payne-Elliot filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in July alleging that it “illegally interfered with his contractual and employment relationship” with Cathedral High School after the school fired him in June. 

The Justice Department announced in a Friday news release that it filed the statement of interest in the case, alleging that “the First Amendment protects the right of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis to interpret and apply Catholic doctrine.”

“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of religious institutions and people to decide what their beliefs are, to teach their faith, and to associate with others who share their faith,” Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband said in the news release. “The First Amendment rightly protects the free exercise of religion.” 

Archbishop Charles Thompson said in a letter sent to parents and students after the firing that “continued employment of a teacher in a public, same-sex marriage would result in our forfeiting our Catholic identity.”

It also called the choice to fire Payne-Elliot “agonizing” for school officials.

In the news release, the Justice Department said that “courts cannot second-guess how religious institutions interpret and apply their own religious laws.”

“The former teacher’s lawsuit attempts to penalize the Archdiocese for determining that schools within its diocese cannot employ teachers in public, same-sex marriages, and simultaneously identify as Catholic. Supreme Court precedent clearly holds that the First Amendment protects the Archdiocese’s right to this form of expressive association, and courts cannot interfere with that right,” the news release said. 

The lawsuit filed by Payne-Elliot stated, “For thirteen years, Mr. Payne-Elliott was a cherished educator of countless students at Cathedral High School. Cathedral renewed his annual teaching contract on May 21, 2019.” 

“But on June 23, 2019, Cathedral’s President told Mr. Payne-Elliott that the Archdiocese had ‘directed’ Cathedral to terminate him, and that Cathedral was following that directive,” the court filing reportedly continued.

Last month, the Trump administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not apply to sexual orientation.

[The Hill]

Senate confirms Aton Scalia’s Son as Labor secretary

The Senate has confirmed Eugene Scalia to lead the Labor Department, replacing Alexander Acosta who resigned amid questions over a plea deal he brokered for the now-deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Senate voted along party lines, 53-44, to confirm Scalia. He is the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

At his confirmation hearing last week, Democrats questioned his record on LGBTQ and disability rights, noting his past writings and court cases. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday voted along party lines to advance his nomination.

President Trump officially nominated Scalia in August, triggering opposition from labor unions due to his work as a lawyer for businesses in high-profile labor fights.

Scalia, 55, is a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and is a member and former co-chairman of its labor and employment practice group. He also co-chairs the firm’s administrative law and regulatory practice group.

He also served as solicitor of the Labor Department from 2002 to 2003 after his appointment by former President George W. Bush.

[The Hill]

Trump Administration to Crack Down on Vaping with Plan to Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes

The Trump administration is planning to crack down on vaping, especially when it comes to its use among teens.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced the administration’s plan to completely remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market, save for tobacco-flavored products, on Wednesday from the Oval Office. He noted that about 8 million adults and 5 million children are currently vaping.

Before Azar announced the plan, President Donald Trump highlighted the fact that vaping poses a danger to children, saying that the popularity of e-cigarettes is a “very new and potentially very bad” problem.

The president and Azar were joined by First Lady Melania Trump and the Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Norman Sharpless.

“We want to have parents understand that we’re studying it very carefully,” Trump said. “There have been deaths and there have been a lot of other problems. People think it’s an easy solution to cigarettes, but it’s turned out that it has its own difficulties.”

Azar then said that new data from the National Youth Tobacco survey shows “a continued surging” in e-cigarette use among teens and that young users are specifically drawn to the many flavors currently on the market, like mint and candy.

“With the president’s support, the Food and Drug Administration intends to finalize a guidance document that would commence enforcement to require that all flavors, other than tobacco flavor, would be removed from the market,” Azar said, adding that once the FDA finalizes the guidance, enforcement actions will begin.

Azar suggested that the ban on flavors could be the first step of many to keep children from vaping.

“If we find that children are being attracted to tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes, if we find that manufacturers are marketing the tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes to children, or placing them in settings where they get them, we will take enforcement action there also,” he added.

Trump’s announcement comes one day after Kansas health officials confirmed the sixth vaping-related death in the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control is investigating more than 450 reported cases of severe lung illness linked to vaping from U.S. residents of all ages, a number that the CDC said on Friday had more than doubled from the prior week.

The CDC is urging Americans to avoid vaping while investigations into the deaths and illnesses proceed.

“While this investigation is ongoing, people should consider not using e-cigarette products,” said Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, incident manager of the CDC’s response to the vaping-related lung injuries. “People who do use e-cigarette products should monitor themselves for symptoms, for example, cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea and vomiting — and promptly seek medical attention for any health concerns.”

On Wednesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said the health organization “strongly supports” the FDA’s plan to “finalize an enforcement policy that will clear non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes from the market.”

“This is an important step in response to the epidemic of e-cigarette use among our Nation’s youth, and will help protect them from a lifetime of nicotine addiction and associated health risks. Clearing the market of non-tobacco-flavored products is important to reverse this alarming epidemic,” he continued in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

“Any tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe for youth. Nicotine can harm the developing adolescent brain. We must do everything we can to reduce the use of e-cigarettes among middle and high school students.”

[People]

Reality

Donald Trump actually did a very good thing, and announced a ban on flavored e-cigarettes which are notoriously marketed to children.

Later we learned it was only after Melania was scared for her son, because the Trump’s only care about themselves.

Later Trump walked back his comments, saying not all e-cigarettes are bad… because he’s a shill for any industry who will donate to his campaign.

Trump admin asks Supreme Court not to extend sex discrimination ban to sexual orientation

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court not to extend a sex discrimination ban to include sexual orientation, arguing that the language for the law was not intended for that purpose. 

The Justice Department argues that the language in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents employment discrimination “because of sex,” does not apply to sexual orientation, in an amicus brief filed Friday. 

The Justice Department says the term “sex” is not otherwise defined in the law, arguing that it therefore means the “ordinary meaning of ‘sex’” which is refers to a person being “biologically male or female.”

“It does not include sexual orientation,” the department said in the brief. “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, standing alone, does not satisfy that standard.”

The filing relates to the cases of Gerald Bostock, a man who claims he was fired by Clayton County, Ga., for being gay, and Donald Zarda, who claims he was fired as a skydiving instructor at Altitude Express, for being gay. 

Bostock’s case was dismissed by lower courts. 

Trump issues executive order freezing federal workers’ pay in 2019

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday freezing federal workers’ pay for 2019, following through on a proposal he announced earlier in the year.

The move, which nixes a 2.1% across-the-board pay raise that was set to take effect in January, comes as hundreds of thousands of federal employees are expecting to begin the new year furloughed or working without pay because of a partial government shutdown.
Trump told lawmakers he planned to scrap the 2019 pay bump for federal workers in August, saying the federal budget couldn’t support it. In addition to the 2.1% pay increase, the executive order also cancels a yearly adjustment of paychecks based on the region of the country where workers are posted, called the “locality pay increase,” that was due to take effect in January.

The move does not affect a 2.6% pay increase for US troops next year that was passed as part of the massive defense spending bill Trump signed in August.

Lawmakers could include a pay raise for 2019 in a spending bill to reopen the government, but negotiations have been at an impasse over money for Trump’s border wall.

About 380,000 federal employees are on furlough and 420,000 are working without pay as the new year approaches.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders in August, Trump described the pay increase as “inappropriate.”

“We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” the President wrote.

Trump also stressed that a pay freeze would not affect the federal government’s ability to attract qualified workers. He cited his statutory authority to adjust pay out of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.”

[CNN]

Sidestepping Congress, Trump Administration Proposes More Work Rules For Food Stamps

House Republicans couldn’t get stricter work rules for those who receive food stamps into law. So the Trump administration is attempting to sidestep Congress and add them anyway.

On Thursday, the Department of Agriculture unveiled a regulatory proposal to expand work requirements for those in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The proposed rule change makes it harder for states to waive work requirements in areas that have high unemployment, currently defined as 20 percent above the national average.

The USDA is calling for those waivers to be limited to one year, down from up to two years states can currently request. It also wants to slash states’ ability to “bank” waivers for future years and is pushing to restrict waivers under certain criteria where local unemployment is around 7 percent.

In all, the proposed rule could reduce areas that qualify for waivers by roughly 75 percent, according to USDA officials.

The change to the federal SNAP program, which is overseen by the USDA, comes on the same day President Trump is expected to sign the $867 billion farm bill into law.

“These actions will save hard-working taxpayers $15 billion over 10 years,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, adding that the proposed rule would also get Trump “to support a farm bill he might otherwise have opposed.”

Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents — commonly referred to by the acronym “ABAWDs” — are required to work 20 hours a week or be in a job training program. An ABAWD is classified as someone 18 to 49 who is not elderly, a woman who is pregnant or someone living with a disability.

According to a USDA fact sheet, 2.8 million individual ABAWDs on SNAP rolls in 2016 were not working. If the proposed rule change from USDA is approved, roughly 755,000 would lose food stamp benefits as a result of the new waiver restrictions.

This is the latest push by the Trump administration to call for stricter work requirements as a way to move more Americans off public assistance and toward self-sufficiency, often pointing to the low unemployment rate, currently at 3.7 percent, as evidence jobs are available.

“This restores the dignity of work to a sizable segment of our population, while it’s also respectful of the taxpayers who fund the [SNAP] program,” Perdue said.

Farm bill negotiations were bogged down for months over work requirement provisions included in the House-passed version of the farm bill. Those provisions, supported by House Republicans and the president were eventually weeded out of the final bill.

Democrats on Capitol Hill lambasted the proposal, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, saying the change was “driven by ideology.”

“This regulation blatantly ignores the bipartisan Farm Bill that the president is signing today and disregards over 20 years of history giving states flexibility to request waivers based on local job conditions,” Stabenow said in a statement.

“I do not support unilateral and unjustified changes that would take food away from families,” she said.

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Agriculture committee, cheered the administration’s push.

“This is an issue we took head-on in the House-passed farm bill, creating a road map for states to more effectively engage [able-bodied adults without dependents] in this booming economy,” Conaway said in a statement.

“I applaud the proposed rule and proudly stand with the Trump administration in demonstrating the importance of state accountability and recipient success.”

Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, it will be open for 60 days for the public to comment.

[NRP]

The Trump administration reportedly wants the government to revoke civil rights protections from transgender people

The Trump administration is weighing making its biggest attack on transgender rights yet in a maneuver that would strip federal recognition of the gender identity of some 1.4 million Americans — and require genetic testing in some cases to match a person’s gender with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Erica Green, Katie Benner, and Robert Pear of the New York Times reported on Sunday that the Department of Health and Human Services is floating a memo that would establish the legal definition of sex under Title IX — the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination in education on the basis of gender — that would render immutable the sex of a person at birth. In other words, the government would not recognize a person’s gender other than the one based on their genitalia when they’re born.

Per the Times:

The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.

According to the Times, it would “eradicate federal recognition” of some 1.4 million transgender Americans.

HHS is preparing to formally present the new definition to the Justice Department before the end of the year, and if the department decides the change is legal, it could be enforced across Title IX laws and government agencies, including the Departments of Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Labor.

The effects could be far-reaching — it could impact which locker rooms and bathrooms transgender students could use as well as which sports teams students join or what happens to single-sex classes, the Times points out. If enacted, it could even require some people to produce DNA tests as part of their educational experience — an unprecedented step to enforce a biological definition of gender.

The Trump administration has been terrible on transgender rights

The Obama administration worked to advance transgender rights and loosen federal regulations to allow for more gender fluidity — including defining gender identity as protected by Title IX. President Donald Trump and his administration have taken steps to reverse that.

Soon after taking office, the Trump administration sent out a letter officially revoking Obama-era guidance on protecting trans students in federally funded schools, saying it was federal overreach. Trump has sought to ban transgender people from serving in the military, rescinded a memo protecting trans workers, and stripped protections for trans prisoners. It has also worsened protections for transgender people in health care.

Trump on the campaign trail said he would embrace LGBTQ people and said he would “fight” for them while Hillary Clinton would bring in “more people that will threaten your freedoms and believes.” But as Vox’s German Lopez pointed out, he’s done quite the opposite:

As president, Trump has acted more or less how you would expect a typical anti-LGBTQ Republican to act. Maybe that reflects his own opinions. Maybe it reflects the views of the people he’s surrounded himself with in his administration, including Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, both of whom have very long histories of anti-LGBTQ causes.

This new assault on transgender people — and one that includes genetic testing — is just the latest chapter.

[Vox

]

Trump Attacks Puerto Ricans, ‘Totally Incompetent’ San Juan Mayor Ahead of Hurricane Florence

MAs Hurricane Florence is about to bear down on the southeastern U.S. coastline, President Trump is attacking San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz for her criticism of the government’s “unappreciated great job” of how it handled the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Here’s the part where Trump advised people to take appropriate safety measures to prepare for Florence.

Yesterday, Trump held a pool spray where he bragged about about the federal government’s “unsung success” in handling the disaster in Puerto Rico last year. These remarks were panned immediately by critics who wonder how Trump can possibly call the recovery a success when almost 3,000 died as a result of the storm.

Last night, Cruz responded to Trump by blasting his “despicable” comments and “lack of understanding of reality.” Puerto Ricans governor Ricardo Rosselló also gave a statement, saying the island is still in the middle of a crisis, and he also criticized the “unfair and unAmerican” relationship between Puerto Rico and Washington.

[Mediaite]

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