AFP USA

Six months after defeating Joe Biden, President Donald Trump is back in power but remains obsessed with his White House predecessor, taking every opportunity to blame the man who remains his greatest political bugbear.The country’s GDP fell in the first quarter because of the “overhang” from the Democrat’s presidency, Trump insisted Wednesday on his Truth Social network.Hours later during a cabinet meeting, he denied any link between the economic slowdown and his protectionist trade policies, even though it was essentially due to a surge in imports in anticipation of the Republican’s sweeping tariffs.”This is Biden,” he said of the first-quarter downturn, “and you can even say the next quarter is sort of Biden.”According to a recent count by The New York Times, the brash billionaire has mentioned his predecessor on average six times per day since his January 20 inauguration.Even conservative influencer Dave Portnoy, who was a powerful conduit for anti-Biden rhetoric during last year’s presidential campaign, is tiring of the deflections.”What’s that old expression? Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining?” Portnoy posted on X in response to Trump claiming “This is Biden’s Stock Market.””The stock market is a direct reflection of Trumps 1st 100 days in office,” added Portnoy, who founded digital media company Barstool Sports. “Doesn’t mean it won’t get better… but this is his market not Biden’s.”And yet Trump, whose approval rating has tumbled in recent weeks, blasts Biden relentlessly.On Wednesday, he blamed the Democrat for “destroying our country in so many ways,” described the three-year old conflict between Russia and Ukraine as “Biden’s war,” and even slammed his nemesis for not having cabinet meetings as open as his own.”Trump knows the economy and his foreign policy are in trouble, and he’s looking for a narrative that excuses himself,” Joseph Grieco, a political science professor at Duke University, told AFP.”Biden bashing has worked for him in the past, so it’s not surprising he’d turn to it now,” he said, but added: “This will work for only so long.”During a Tuesday rally in Michigan to mark his first 100 days in office, Trump asked his supporters which of his two Biden smears they preferred: “Crooked Joe or Sleepy Joe?”Trump then offered a boorish critique of his predecessor, as he often did on the campaign trail. “He goes to the beach, right? And he could fall asleep… drooling out of the side of his mouth.”The Washington Post counted roughly 30 Biden references in the lengthy speech.And in a willful rejection of fact, Trump repeated his false claim that the Democrat had stolen his victory in 2020.- ‘The other guy’ -To date, there has been little effective response from the Democratic opposition, and Trump has made sure this time around that he is surrounded exclusively by loyal lieutenants who flatter rather than provoke.So when the president seeks a political punching bag, he rounds on Biden.He has attacked Biden on a range of issues, from high egg prices to strikes against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, from immigration to paper straws.On social media, legions of Trump-aligned accounts join the fray, hurling jibes at Biden.In March as he promoted Tesla, the company run by his ally Elon Musk, the 78-year-old Trump told reporters at the White House as he emerged from a red vehicle: “You think Biden could get into that car? I don’t think so.”When he was president, Biden adopted quite a different strategy. He often refused to even utter Trump’s name, referring to him as “the other guy.”

Tech giant Meta on Wednesday reported quarterly profits that were well above expectations, brushing aside market worries that its heavy investments in cloud computing and artificial intelligence would hamper growth.The company reported a $16.6 billion profit in the first three months of the year on revenue of $42.3 billion, with business spending on ads remaining strong.Shares in the social media giant — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — rose more than four percent in after-market trades.”We’ve had a strong start to an important year, our community continues to grow and our business is performing very well,” said Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.”We’re making good progress on AI glasses and Meta AI, which now has almost one billion monthly actives.”Meta this week unveiled its first standalone AI assistant app, challenging ChatGPT by giving users a direct path to its generative AI models.Zuckerberg said in an Instagram video post that the app “is designed to be your personal AI” and could be primarily accessed through voice conversations, with the interactions personalized to the individual user.Meta is putting AI to work throughout its platforms, from creating and targeting ads to recommending content for users, according to Zuckerberg.- Defending the family -The solid performance comes as Meta defends its group of apps in a US antitrust case that could end with the tech firm ordered to spin off messaging service WhatsApp and photo sharing platform Instagram.Some 3.43 billion people use apps in the Meta family every day, according to the company.Zuckerberg has denied in court that his company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to neutralize competitive threats, as alleged by the Federal Trade Commission.The earnings also come in the wake of significant shifts in Meta’s content policies that are apparently intended to endear the company to US President Donald Trump, including the termination of its US fact-checking operation on Facebook.”Meta robust earnings show that the company’s advertising business remained healthy in Q1, proof that the controversial ending of its fact-checking program hasn’t done much to deter advertisers,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.”But investors and onlookers alike will be much more concerned with what’s to come in Q2 and beyond, considering the wildly different economic environment the company now operates in because of Trump’s tariffs.”Analysts are keen to see whether the hefty US tariffs will prompt businesses to cut their online advertising budgets, thereby weakening Meta’s main source of revenue.Meta’s first-quarter earnings came “before the economic turmoil really kicked in and before the seesaw of the tariffs began,” and China-based advertisers like Temu and Shein cut ad spending, said Sonata Insights chief analyst Debra Aho Williamson.”If Meta can continue to improve its AI-driven ad performance and targeting tools, it will be able to withstand any shortfall in revenue from China advertisers,” Williamson said.Meta has laid out plans for massive infrastructure investments, with expected capital expenditures of $64-72 billion for 2025, primarily supporting AI initiatives.”The pace of progress across the industry and the opportunities ahead for us are staggering,” Zuckerberg said on an earnings call.”We are accelerating some of our efforts to bring capacity online more quickly this year, as well as some longer term projects, and that has increased our planned investment for this year.”While Meta’s stock has performed strongly, the company faces both regulatory challenges and emerging competition.The rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s more economical AI model has reportedly prompted Meta to establish war rooms to study and potentially adapt the innovations for its own Llama AI models.

Contraction? What contraction? As far as US President Donald Trump and his cabinet were concerned on Wednesday all was well with the economy — and with everything else too.News that the US economy unexpectedly shrank amid the chaos of Trump’s tariffs did not stop his top team from heaping praise on the president at a meeting the day after his 100th day back in power.In a nationalistic touch, red and black baseball caps embroidered with the words “Gulf of America” were placed in front of each senior official around the huge wooden cabinet table at the White House.Billionaire Elon Musk even put one of the red hats — which use the name the administration has unilaterally decreed for the Gulf of Mexico — on top of his own signature black baseball cap.”Everybody is outstanding,” Trump said during the marathon two-hour cabinet meeting in front of reporters. “I’ve never been so impressed.”- ‘Unparalleled’ -The 78-year-old Trump began by trumpeting his core topic of migration, hailing what he said was an “amazing job” of cutting migrant crossings over the border from Mexico.When it came to the economy Trump’s main message was to insist on the success of his sweeping tariffs — and to blame his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden for the economy contracting in the first months of the Republican’s term.The billionaire tycoon had promised during his 2024 election campaign to boost the economy and lower inflation, but figures released Wednesday showed US GDP contracted at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter.”It’s a big ship to turn around, and we’re going to have the greatest country, financially, in the history of the world,” Trump insisted.Trump then turned to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to his left, joking that he was “my least controversial person” — despite the growing “Signalgate” scandal over Hegseth’s use of the commercial app to discuss airstrikes against Yemen.One by one, Trump’s cabinet — which contains the most billionaires of any president’s top team — then took turns to sing the praises of their leader.Hegseth, wearing a camouflage tie, credited Trump with a “recruiting renaissance” in the armed forces. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hailed “unbelievable” investment. Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles said it was “100 days that’s been unparalleled in my memory, and the best, I can tell, ever.” Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary widely regarded as a stabilizing voice on tariffs, hailed Trump’s leadership as “momentous.”The ever-combative Vice President JD Vance then launched into an attack on reporters in the room for “focusing on fake BS.” – ‘Kim Jong Il-style’ -On it went, with Musk eventually taking his turn.”Elon, I love the double hat,” Trump said of the Tesla and Space X tycoon. “He’s the only one who can get away with that.””They say I wear a lot of hats. It’s true — even my hat has a hat,” quipped Musk, who has been heading Trump’s cost-cutting drive at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in addition to running his businesses.But it could also be one of Musk’s last appearances around the cabinet table.Musk recently said he will start to take a step back from his cost-cutting role to focus on his Tesla electric car business, amid protests at his involvement in Trump’s administration.This time it was Trump’s term to dish out praise.”You’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said as the other cabinet members applauded. In a later event at the White House, Trump paraded a series of business leaders who pledged to invest in the United States, including the CEO of chip maker Nvidia, Jensen Huang.Not everyone was impressed, though. Conservative Ann Coulter compared the gushing cabinet meeting to North Korea. “Would it be possible to have a cabinet meeting without the Kim Jong Il-style tributes?” Coulter said on X, referring to Pyongyang’s former leader.

One of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers on Wednesday again told a New York court that he had raped her, five years after she testified in the first sexual assault trial of the disgraced Hollywood producer.Miriam Haley, 48, is one of dozens of women who have accused Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape — a list that includes Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement.Weinstein’s 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and aspiring actress Jessica Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.Back in a Manhattan courtroom, Haley again tearfully recalled the day in July 2006 when she says she accepted an invitation to visit Weinstein’s Soho apartment. At the time, she was a showbiz production assistant looking for work.She had previously met Weinstein and refused his sexual advances, but had just wrapped up a contract on a TV show made by his production company, and needed a new job.Haley, who was born in Finland and has also used the name Mimi Haleyi, told the court that Weinstein suddenly “lunged at me, tried to kiss me.”She said she got up from the sofa, but Weinstein did as well, and he eventually forced her into his bedroom and held her down with “a lot of force.””I couldn’t get away from him,” she told the jury, explaining that despite her pleas for him to stop, Weinstein then forcibly performed oral sex on her and she realized she was being “raped.””I just decided to check out and endure it,” she told the court, adding that she did not initially file a criminal complaint because her visa did not officially allow her to work and she feared being expelled from the country.Across the courtroom, the 73-year-old Weinstein occasionally shook his head during her testimony. Otherwise, he listened attentively from his wheelchair, his head resting on one of his hands.- ‘I felt so stupid’ -The former Miramax studio boss is charged in the New York retrial with the 2006 sexual assault of Haley and the 2013 rape of Mann. He also faces a new count for an alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old in 2006.Accusers describe the impresario as a predator who used his perch atop the cinema industry to pressure actresses and assistants for sexual favors, often in hotel rooms.Weinstein — the producer of a string of box office hits such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” — has never acknowledged any wrongdoing and has always maintained that the encounters were consensual.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.His defense team plans to emphasize that Haley remained in touch with Weinstein after the alleged assault. Haley admitted she had seen Weinstein again in late July 2006 and had consensual sex with him at that time. “I felt so stupid,” she said. “I was desperate for work.”She also exchanged multiple emails with him, she told the court, until at least 2009.She only broke her silence in 2017, shortly after The New York Times and The New Yorker published their first investigative pieces about Weinstein’s alleged misdeeds.

The US economy unexpectedly contracted in the first three months of the year on an import surge triggered by Donald Trump’s tariff plans, although the president pinned the blame squarely on his predecessor.The sharp increase in imports was a reflection of businesses and consumers stockpiling foreign goods to get ahead of Trump’s sweeping trade levies, which went into effect earlier this month.All three major Wall Street indices fell on the economic news, before paring losses to close mixed, while oil prices extended their losses.At a cabinet meeting in Washington, Trump insisted the growth downturn was the legacy of former president Joe Biden’s policies.”That’s Biden, that’s not Trump,” he said.Striking a more positive tone, he highlighted the “whopping” 22 percent rise in gross domestic investment during the first quarter. Annual economic growth stayed above two percent in every year of Biden’s presidency, reaching 2.8 percent in 2024. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s largest economy decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter, after growing 2.4 percent in the final months of 2024, according to Wednesday’s first estimate from the US Commerce Department.This was sharply below the market consensus estimate of 0.4 percent growth, according to Briefing.com, and marked the first quarterly contraction since 2022.The Commerce Department said in a statement that the contraction was in large part down to an “upturn in imports,” aided by a decline in consumer and government spending. – ‘A blaring warning’ -In a statement, the White House called GDP a “backward-looking indicator.””It’s no surprise the leftovers of Biden’s economic disaster have been a drag on economic growth,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.”But the underlying numbers tell the real story of the strong momentum President Trump is delivering.”The GDP figures were published on the 101st day since Trump returned to White House, along with fresh data showing a slowdown in the US Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge last month. Trump’s introduction of sweeping tariffs against most countries sparked a selloff in financial markets, sending volatility to levels not seen since the Covid pandemic.”This decline in GDP is a blaring warning to everyone that Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans’ failed MAGA experiment is killing our economy,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement.- ‘Greater risk of recession’ -Following the dramatic market movements in early April, the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause on the higher tariffs for dozens of countries to allow for trade talks, while maintaining a baseline 10 percent rate for most countries.But the administration has also added to the tariffs on China, with the level of duties introduced since January now totaling 145 percent — with some sector-specific measures pushing levies even higher. Beijing has responded with its own steep, targeted measures against US goods.At the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said China was getting “hammered” by the tariffs, and said he still hoped to make a deal with Beijing, whom he referred to as “the leading candidate for the chief ripper-offer” of America. “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” Trump said, arguing that the United States did not need many of the things China produced.”And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” he said.Economists at Wells Fargo wrote in an investor note that the US economy is at a greater risk of recession now than a month ago, “but this 0.3 percent contraction in Q1 GDP is not the start of one.””It reflects instead the sudden change in trade policy that culminated in the biggest drag from net exports in data going back more than a half-century.”

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared to be leaning towards allowing public funding of a religious charter school in a case testing the historic separation of church and state.Nearly all 50 US states allow charter schools, of which there are some 8,000 in the country.They are government-funded but operate independently of local school districts and are not allowed to charge tuition or have a religious affiliation.The Catholic Church in Oklahoma is vying to open the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, Saint Isidore of Seville.The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled last year that the public funding mechanism for the proposed Catholic charter school in the central state was unconstitutional.The separation between church and state is a bedrock principle in the United States, rooted in the First Amendment of the Constitution. The separation has been upheld in many Supreme Court decisions.During oral arguments on Wednesday, conservative justices on the court however appeared open to allowing public funding of the school, a position backed by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump.”All the religious school is saying is, ‘Don’t exclude us on account of our religion,'” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative Trump appointee.”Our cases have made very clear… you can’t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States,” Kavanaugh said, adding that it “seems like rank discrimination against religion.”The three liberal justices disagreed.”We’re not going to pay religious leaders to teach their religion,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three Democratic appointees.Conservatives hold a 6-3 majority on the nation’s highest court, but Justice Amy Coney Barrett, another Trump appointee, has recused herself from the case, possibly because of previous connections to parties in the case.That leaves Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, as the potential swing vote.A 4-4 decision would leave the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling in place.- ‘Dramatic effect’ -Gregory Garre, representing Oklahoma’s attorney general, said a decision in favor of St Isidore would “not only lead to the creation of the nation’s first religious public school,” it would render unconstitutional the entire federal charter school program and the laws governing charter schools in 47 US states.”This is going to have a dramatic effect on charter schools across the country,” Garre said.”Teaching religion as truth in public schools is not allowed,” he added. “St Isidore has made clear that that’s exactly what it wants to do in infusing its school day with the teachings of Jesus Christ.”The Supreme Court’s conservatives have previously demonstrated support for extending religion into public spaces, particularly schools.The court has issued a number of recent rulings blurring the boundaries between church and state, including a decision that a public high school football coach can lead his players in prayer.The court has also allowed parents to use government vouchers to pay for the education of their children at private religious schools.The case was brought by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and the Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling by the end of June.Oklahoma’s Republican superintendent Ryan Walters, the highest education official in the state, has been among those pushing for the establishment of the religious charter school.Walters has ordered public schools in Oklahoma to teach the Bible, a move met with lawsuits by parents and teachers.Nationally, there were more than 3.7 million students enrolled in 8,150 charter schools during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The US economy unexpectedly contracted in the first three months of the year on an import surge triggered by Donald Trump’s tariff plans, although the president pinned the blame squarely on his predecessor.The sharp increase in imports was a reflection of businesses and consumers stockpiling foreign goods to get ahead of Trump’s sweeping trade levies, which went into effect earlier this month.All three major Wall Street indices fell on the economic news, with the Nasdaq sliding more than two percent before paring some losses, while oil prices extended their losses.At a cabinet meeting in Washington, Trump insisted the growth downturn was the legacy of former president Joe Biden’s policies.”That’s Biden, that’s not Trump,” he said.Striking a more positive tone, he highlighted the “whopping” 22 percent rise in gross domestic investment during the first quarter. Annual economic growth stayed above two percent in every year of Biden’s presidency, reaching 2.8 percent in 2024. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s largest economy decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter, after growing 2.4 percent in the final months of 2024, according to Wednesday’s first estimate from the US Commerce Department.This was sharply below the market consensus estimate of 0.4 percent growth, according to Briefing.com, and marked the first quarterly contraction since 2022.The Commerce Department said in a statement that the contraction was in large part down to an “upturn in imports,” aided by a decline in consumer and government spending. – ‘A blaring warning’ -In a statement, the White House called GDP a “backward-looking indicator.””It’s no surprise the leftovers of Biden’s economic disaster have been a drag on economic growth,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.”But the underlying numbers tell the real story of the strong momentum President Trump is delivering.”The GDP figures were published on the 101st day since Trump returned to White House, along with fresh data showing a slowdown in the US Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge last month. Trump’s introduction of sweeping tariffs against most countries sparked a selloff in financial markets, sending volatility to levels not seen since the Covid pandemic.”This decline in GDP is a blaring warning to everyone that Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans’ failed MAGA experiment is killing our economy,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement.- ‘Greater risk of recession’ -Following the dramatic market movements in early April, the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause to the higher tariffs for dozens of countries to allow for trade talks, while maintaining a baseline 10 percent rate for most countries.But the administration has also added to the tariffs on China, with the level of duties introduced since January now totaling 145 percent — with some sector-specific measures pushing levies even higher. Beijing has responded with its own steep, targeted measures against US goods.At the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said China was getting “hammered” by the tariffs, and said he still hoped to make a deal with Beijing, whom he referred to as “the leading candidate for the chief ripper-offer” of America. “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” Trump said, arguing that the United States did not need many of the things China produced.”And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” he said.Economists at Wells Fargo wrote in an investor note that the US economy is at a greater risk of recession now than a month ago “but this 0.3 percent contraction in Q1 GDP is not the start of one.””It reflects instead the sudden change in trade policy that culminated in the biggest drag from net exports in data going back more than a half-century.”

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Tesla boss Elon Musk could stay working for the White House as long as he wanted but understood the tycoon wanted to get back to his businesses.Musk last month said he will step back from his role as the unofficial head of the administration’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to focus more on his troubled Tesla car company.”The vast majority of the people in this country really respect and appreciate you,” Trump told Musk during a White House cabinet meeting, which could be his last before giving up his DOGE role.”And you know you’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Trump said, though added that Musk may want “to get back home to his cars.”Musk, the world’s richest person, has seen his Tesla car company, which is the major source of his wealth, suffer significant brand damage from his political work.Tesla showrooms have been hit by vandalism and boycott calls in Europe and the United States in a backlash against public service cuts introduced by Musk in his role as a close advisor to Trump.”You really have sacrificed a lot. They treated you very unfairly,” Trump said of opponents to Musk.”They did like to burn my cars, which is not great,” Musk responded.David Sacks, a close Musk ally who is also a member of the Trump administration, last week said that Musk would not be leaving DOGE but reducing his role.This was the same plan he carried out during his takeover of Twitter in 2022, he said.”Once he felt like he had a mental model and he had the people in place that he trusted, he can move to more of a maintenance mode,” Sacks told the All-In podcast.

Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested by US immigration authorities earlier this month at his citizenship interview, expressed defiance Wednesday after a federal judge ordered his release on bail.Speaking outside a courthouse in Vermont, Mahdawi addressed US President Donald Trump and his government, which has moved to revoke foreign students’ visas over their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.”I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said, and then joined the assembled crowd in chanting “no fear.””If there is no fear. What is it replaced with? Love, love is our way.”Mahdawi, 34, was arrested on April 14 as he was attending an interview to become a US citizen, according to court filings.A Palestinian born in the occupied West Bank, Mahdawi has been a legal US permanent resident since 2015, was set to graduate next month and planned to attend a Columbia master’s program this fall, court filings said.He is the co-founder of a Palestinian student group at Columbia alongside Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the movement who Trump has also been trying to expel since his March arrest.”What did they do to me? They arrested me. What’s the reason? Because I raised my voice and I said no to war, yes to peace,” Mahdawi said Wednesday.A judge had previously ordered Mahdawi not to be removed from Vermont, after immigration authorities quickly transferred other students detained under the Trump administration’s crackdown to other jurisdictions.Federal agents had attempted to fly Mahdawi to Louisiana on the day he was arrested, but they were late for the flight, according to court documents.- ‘McCarthyism’ -Khalil on the other hand was transferred to Louisiana shortly after his March 8 arrest, and an immigration judge there ruled earlier this month that he could be deported. His legal challenge remains ongoing.Mahdawi, in challenging his removal, has accused the Trump administration of violating his constitutional rights to free speech and due process, arguments Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Vermont found convincing.”Mahdawi has presented sufficient evidence that his speech was protected under the First Amendment,” Crawford said in his ruling.Crawford ordered Mahdawi’s release on bail while his broader challenge proceeds, requiring that he remain in Vermont and only travel to New York for “educational purposes or to meet with his lawyers or as otherwise ordered by the court.”Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have accused participants in campus protests across the country last year of supporting the Palestinian armed group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza.Israel launched a punishing offensive in response, reducing most of the enclave to rubble and killing more than 52,000 people there, most of them civilians, according to data the UN considers reliable.Rubio has argued that a rarely used federal law grants him the authority to summarily revoke visas and deport migrants who pose threats to US “foreign policy.”Judge Crawford expressed skepticism that Rubio’s application of the law to campus protesters would not violate free speech protections.”Immigration detention cannot be motivated by a punitive purpose. Nor can it be motivated by the desire to deter others from speaking,” he said.Crawford likened the political climate induced by Trump’s crackdown to the anti-communist furor in the early 20th century and 1950s period of McCarthyism.Trump has launched an assault on US universities over the nationwide protests last year against Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war.The administration also claims that universities have failed to address anti-Semitism on campus, and has moved to freeze or revoke billions of dollars in federal funding from institutions including Columbia and Harvard.Legal challenges to the Trump administration’s actions, including Mahdawi’s case, may ultimately end up at the Supreme Court.

Mexico’s economy returned to growth in the first quarter of 2025, avoiding a recession despite deep uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, official data showed Wednesday.Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2024, when Latin America’s second-largest economy had contracted for the first time in three years, national statistics agency INEGI reported.Year-on-year, GDP rose 0.6 percent in the first quarter, it said in a preliminary estimate.”Given the tariff situation and the uncertainty surrounding the global economy these past few months due to President Trump’s new policies, this is good news,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.The positive growth means Mexico outpaced the US economy, which data released on Wednesday showed contracted in the first three months of the year.Mexico’s resilient performance, at least for now, eased fears of a recession, generally defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.Kimberley Sperrfechter, an economist at the Capital Economics consultancy firm, warned that the situation was not all rosy, however.”Growth was driven by a rebound in agriculture and the rest of the economy — and the manufacturing sector in particular — continued to struggle,” she wrote in a note. “The weakness in industry suggests that US tariffs on Mexico (threatened in February and in force in March) took a toll on the economy last quarter,” she added.Gabriela Siller, an economist with the financial group Banco BASE, said that there was a “marked economic slowdown” and the most likely outcome was zero growth in 2025, or a contraction if tariffs remain.- ‘Competitive advantage’ -Trump has announced various tariffs targeting Mexico, as well as several policy U-turns, as part of his global trade war.While he left Mexico off the list of nations facing his steep “reciprocal tariffs,” its carmakers as well as steel and aluminum exporters still face duties.Sheinbaum welcomed Trump’s announcement Tuesday of an easing of auto tariffs as a sign of “progress.”The new rules would give Mexico “an additional competitive advantage” due to its free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, she said.Vehicle tariffs would be reduced if some of the parts were produced in Mexico or Canada, not just the United States, an important change that “recognizes the value” of the trade deal, she said.Even so, the uncertain outlook means that Mexico’s central bank is likely to announce another half-percentage-point cut to its benchmark interest rate in May, Sperrfechter predicted.The International Monetary Fund has predicted that Mexico’s economy will shrink by 0.3 percent this year.Sheinbaum has said her outlook is more optimistic, because of her efforts to boost the economy and attract foreign investment.Her government has touted a series of major investments pledged by international companies in recent weeks, including e-commerce behemoth Amazon, its regional rival Mercado Libre, streaming giant Netflix and Spain’s biggest bank Santander.In theory, Mexico should be protected against US tariffs by the North American free trade agreement, which was renegotiated during Trump’s first term in office.The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced the previous NAFTA accord on July 1, 2020, is due to be reviewed by July next year.Mexico replaced China in 2023 as the largest trading partner with the United States, which buys more than 80 percent of its exports.