Chaos, Corruption and Cruelty Report #2

Trump tanks the economy, pardons a donor and deports a torture victim.

Each week, we chronicle the chaotic, corrupt, and cruel actions of Donald Trump and his administration. And boy, this week, we got some stuff to talk about.

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Chaos: Trump Tanks the Economy

Yesterday, Donald Trump announced one of the largest tax hikes in U.S. history: blanket and so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign goods. The markets tanked.

• The Dow dropped 1,600 points.

• The Nasdaq plunged 5.5%—its worst day since March 2020, peak COVID panic.

• Stellantis (maker of Jeep and RAM) announced 900 U.S. layoffs.

• Whirlpool is cutting 650 jobs.

And here’s the kicker: it’s not even clear Trump knows what “reciprocal” means.

Not all countries that do tariff U.S. goods (like Russia) are included. Meanwhile, countries that don’t have tariffs on U.S. goods, but that we do have trade deficits with are. The formula behind it? How much we export to a country, minus how much we import, divided by total imports. That’s not reciprocity—it’s nonsense.

It all adds up to this: large tariffs slapped on countries we buy a lot from, meaning higher prices for American consumers.

This isn’t good policy. It’s economic malpractice dressed up as performative nationalism. These tariffs hurt workers, raise costs, and destabilize global trade.

Here is how a few notable people and publications have reacted:

Corruption: Trump Pardons a Donor

Last week, Donald Trump pardoned Trevor Milton—the disgraced Nikola Motors founder convicted of securities fraud for conning investors with fake claims about his company’s tech.

He was sentenced to four years. Trump let him out. Why?

• Milton donated $1.8 million to Trump.

• His attorney? Brand Bondi—brother of our new Attorney General, Pam Bondi.

But it gets worse.

The SEC just announced it won’t investigate “Hawk Tuah Girl” for her meme coin scam—an obvious pump-and-dump scheme. Don’t know who Hawk Tuah is? Congrats, you have a healthy relationship with the internet.

Here’s what matters:
She was the public face of a blatant crypto scam.
And Trump and Melania are doing the same thing.

So why isn’t the SEC investigating? Because it would force them to go after Trump, too.

If you want a deeper dive into the scam, watch this video.

Then watch this video to learn how Donald Trump and Melanie Trump are doing the same thing.

Welcome to the grift economy.

Cruelty: ICE Tries to Deport a Torture Victim

Adriana Quiroz Zapata fled Colombia to escape rape, beatings, and abuse from her ex-boyfriend—who, according to court documents, has powerful connections in the national police.

Under Trump’s revived mass deportation policies, ICE tried to deport her… not to Colombia, but to Mexico. A country she has no connection to. Mexico refused to take her.

She’s now stuck in a detention center in El Paso.

“On at least ten different occasions from 2022 to 2024, [Restrepo, her ex-boyfriend] and uniformed police officers came to [Zapata’s] home, destroyed her things, threatened her, severely beat her, and raped her.”
— from immigration court documents, via The Bulwark

This isn’t an outlier. This is what Trump’s immigration policy looks like in practice. The cruelty is the policy.

Read the full story here.