The Undeniable Cruelty of Trump’s Methods; California Sues to Stop Tariffs–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: April 17, 2025

Indy Digest: April 17, 2025

As I edited a trio of just-posted stories that deal with the consequences of the Trump administration’s actions since he returned to office on Jan. 20, one word kept coming to mind.

Cruel.

One piece chronicles various cuts, either made or proposed, to portions of the country’s “safety net.” Kevin Fitzgerald talked to local seniors who are worried that as part of a proposed $1.5 trillion spending cut over the next decade—much of which would fund tax cuts, primarily going to the wealthiest Americans—they could lose some or all of their Social Security and Medicare benefits. 

While seniors are justifiably concerned about what could happen, many of the nation’s food banks—including FIND Food Bank and its affiliate food-distribution outlets locally—are dealing with the consequences of something that did happen: a sudden and unexplained cancellation of $500 million in food shipments from the federal government. According to Debbie Espinosa, FIND’s president and CEO, that meant the unanticipated cancellation of 10 truckloads of food that would have gone to our valley’s most vulnerable citizens.

Cruel.

For another piece, Haleemon Anderson talked to local public-lands advocates about the havoc being wreaked by the on-again, off-again layoffs, cuts and cancellations coming down from the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. In February, 1,000 National Park Service employees were laid off without warning; those jobs were later restored as the result of court orders, but all NPS employees are bracing for whatever may come next. Also in February, a fact sheet issued by the Trump administration announced that the designation of the new Chuckwalla National Monument—an accomplishment that a large bipartisan coalition worked on for years—would be rescinded. Soon after, that mention was removed from the fact sheet, without explanation. Today, rumors are flying, and seemingly nobody knows what’s going on, or what’s happening next. 

Nick Graver, a graduate student in conservation biology who’s done much of his work in Joshua Tree National Park, told the Independent that he believes confusion is the point of many of the federal government’s inconsistent and baffling actions.

Cruel.

Finally, Halee wrote a piece on the steps College of the Desert is taking to assure that the community college’s students—including students who are undocumented or from mixed-status families—simply feel safe.

“Every student deserves access to education without fear,” said acting COD President Val Martinez Garcia.

Let’s put aside the various policy arguments in play here. Even if you believe our government is bloated, and that spending needs to be cut, that can be done without cancelling shipments to food banks without explanation or warning. Even if you believe employees need to be laid off, that can be done rationally, with compassion and explanation. Even if you think it’s a problem for undocumented students to be attending our colleges, changes can be made without purposefully creating terror, which is what Trump advisers like Stephen Miller wants.

No matter where you stand politically, you can’t rationally deny that the Trump administration’s actions have been haphazard, needlessly unexplained, and terribly cruel. 

And if you’re OK with that, you can neither call yourself humane, nor Christian, nor moral. You’re just someone who doesn’t give a damn about your fellow humans. 

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The Associated Press examines Harvard’s decision to fight the Trump administration’s demands—and the fact that Harvard may be emboldening other universities to also be more defiant: “No university is better positioned to put up a fight than Harvard, whose $53 billion endowment is the largest in the nation. But like other major universities, Harvard also depends on the federal funding that fuels its scientific and medical research. It’s unclear how long Harvard could continue without the frozen money. Already, Harvard’s refusal appears to be emboldening other institutions. After initially agreeing to several demands from the Trump administration, Columbia University’s acting president took a more defiant tone in a campus message Monday, saying some of the demands ‘are not subject to negotiation.’”

• A delayed meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices took place this week, and—breathe a sigh of relief—it was pretty typical … but not totally. NPR says: “Despite concerns that the administration might meddle with a committee of vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, their first public meeting since President Trump’s inauguration followed its usual course. Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to expand the options for meningococcal vaccines and to lower the age of recommendation for RSV vaccines to include people aged 50 to 59 with certain risk factors. They also voted to recommend vaccines for the tropical disease chikungunya for travelers or lab workers who are likely to be exposed to the virus. … Committee members also previewed topics such as flu and COVID vaccines that will be considered more formally in the next public meeting, scheduled for June.”

• The state of California is standing up to Trump’s tariffs. Our partners at Calmatters report: “With the state budget hanging precariously in the balance, Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit today to block President Donald Trump’s tariff powers. The lawsuit, which Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed in federal court in San Francisco, argues that Trump does not have the constitutional authority to unilaterally enact tariffs. Trump cited the United States’ large trade deficit to declare a national emergency earlier this month and impose sweeping import taxes on the rest of the world. Visiting an almond farm in Turlock, which stands to lose export business to retaliatory tariffs, Newsom expressed anger over the ‘toxic uncertainty’ of the president’s trade policy. He said the policies are harming California more than any other state and called the tariffs a betrayal of the voters who supported Trump because of his promise to bring down the cost of living. ‘This is recklessness at another level. The geopolitical impacts are outsized. The trade impacts are outsized,’ Newsom said. ‘No rationale, no plan, no conscience to what it’s doing to real people.’”

• So what, exactly, does it mean that a federal judge found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt? What will happen as a result? A professor of law, writing for The Conversation, explains: “Normally, a prosecutor in a case like this would be from the Department of Justice. In (Judge) Boasberg’s opinion, he acknowledged that the Department of Justice might decline to prosecute. Federal rules allow the judge to appoint a different prosecutor if the government declines to prosecute or if ‘the interest of justice requires the appointment of another attorney.’ One big question is, can the president pardon contempt? Notably, Trump has done so before, when he pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio for defying a court order requiring him to stop his immigration patrols. However, some scholars have argued that such pardons may violate the Constitution’s separation of powers.“

• Meanwhile, DOGE continues to do terrible, terrible things. Wired reports: “AmeriCorps, the US federal agency that oversees volunteerism and service work, abruptly pulled teams of young people out of a variety of community service projects across the country on Tuesday. The work stoppage was due to cuts attributed to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, volunteers were informed Tuesday afternoon. WIRED spoke with seven workers with the National Civilian Community Corps, better known as AmeriCorps NCCC, who say that they were told to stop working on projects ranging from rebuilding homes destroyed in storms, to readying a summer camp for kids, to distributing supplies for hurricane recovery, and prepare to immediately travel back to their homes.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … portable chargers! ABC News says: “About 429,000 portable power banks are under recall because they can overheat and potentially catch fire while charging phones, posing a burn hazard to consumers. According to a Thursday notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Brooklyn, New York-based Casely is recalling some of its ‘Power Pods’ after receiving 51 reports of the chargers’ lithium-ion battery overheating, expanding or catching fire during use—resulting in six minor burn injuries to date. … The wireless phone chargers were manufactured in China, Thursday’s notice notes, and sold on Amazon, getcasely.com and other websites between March 2022 and September 2024. Consumers in possession of these chargers, which came in a variety of colors and prints, are urged to stop using them immediately—and contact Casely for a free replacement.”

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