The see-saw world of Donald Trump.
Just in the past few days the ups and downs have been dizzying. On March 5 a federal judge ruled that Trump lacked authority to fire the chair of the three-person Merit Systems Protection Board and reinstated her indefinitely. That same board ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate all probationary employees fired by the Trump administration. Also on March 5, after irritating lawmakers with his autocratic approach to management, Elon Musk met with GOP senators who told him they would give full support the cuts being made by DOGE, but he must do them through Congress. In the same breathless day, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger, who was fired by Trump on February 7 and reinstated by a federal district judge on February 10 until legal arguments could be heard, was told by a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court that his removal from office would be honored pending full review of the case. Dellinger announced the next day that he would end his legal fight.
On March 6, a second federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in favor of Democratic state attorneys general blocking Trump’s blanket freeze on federal grants and loans, saying the administration “put itself above Congress.” A different federal judge had previously granted a similar injunction.
And just to shake things up a bit more, also on March 6, Trump approved tariff exemptions for imports from Canada and Mexico that are covered under a 2020 North American trade agreement, at least until April 2. He also lowered tariffs on Canadian potash, an ingredient in fertilizer, from 25% to 10%. He had imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico 2 days earlier and an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods.
Now, after a tumultuous White House meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, Trump says he is considering revoking temporary protected status for Ukrainians who fled to the US after the Russian invasion, but he has not made a final decision. There are about 240,000 Ukrainians who could be subject to deportation.
The question on everyone’s mind—what’s next?