By the Associated Press
Senator Bill Cassidy didn’t simply criticize the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Following the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a US Border Patrol officer, the Louisiana Republican warned of broader implications for the federal government.
“The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake,” Cassidy wrote in a social media post, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. “There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth.”
Trust is one of a president’s most valuable currencies, especially in a time of crisis. During his second term, President Trump has persistently undermined the trust and credibility of major universities, national law firms, and media and taken punitive actions against them. His supporters largely either endorsed those actions or stayed mum.
By the Associated Press
President Trump has strong-armed many of America’s biggest trading partners into pledging trillions of dollars of investment in the United States. But a study out Tuesday raises doubts about whether the money will actually materialize and questions how it would be spent if it did.
“How realistic are these commitments?’’ write Gregory Auclair and Adnan Mazarei of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a nonpartisan think tank that supports free trade. “The short answer is that they are clouded with uncertainty.’’
They looked at more than $5 trillion in investment commitments made last year by the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Persian Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump used the threat of punitive tariffs – import taxes – to pry concessions out of those trading partners, including the investment pledges.