Trump administration defends tariffs imposed on island inhabited by penguins: live

Five international students at UMass Amherst had their visas revoked by the federal government, the school said in a statement.

Chancellor Javier Reyes announced the “troubling news” in a Friday letter addressed to the UMass community.

“In each of the five cases, the students’ legal status to remain in the United States has been revoked,” Reyes said. “The university was not notified by federal authorities of these status revocations and only became aware as a result of proactive checks in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database.”

It’s not immediately clear what prompted their visas to be revoked. A spokesperson for the school told NBC News that there is “no reason to believe that these revocations are connected to campus activism.”

The news comes as the Trump administration hopes to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in American history.

Several prominent cases of international students being targeted for removal have made headlines in recent weeks.

The federal government has taken steps to remove Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student activist and a green card holder, from the U.S. The administration has accused Khalil of supporting Hamas; Khalil says he mediated conversations between Columbia and pro-Palestine student protesters. He was placed in ICE custody in early March.

Ukrainians legally in the U.S. were told in an email mistakenly sent Friday by the Department of Homeland Security that their parole status had been withdrawn and that they had to self-deport, according to Politico.

The email, sent to an unidentified number of people, prompted widespread fear among those who came to the U.S. to flee the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022. The refugees have been increasingly concerned about their legal status in the country, as President Donald Trump said last month that they could revoke their residency status.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the outlet that the U.S. has not yet revoked the temporary parole status handed to the 240,000 Ukrainians who came to the U.S., fleeing the war under former President Joe Biden.

The rightwing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer has expressed interest in joining the Trump administration.

Loomer took to X on Saturday to say, “I really want to work for President Trump. There is honestly nothing I want more than that.”

Loomer’s comments come after Trump fired several members of the National Security Council following a meeting with the conspiracy theorist during which she pressed the president to remove those she deemed disloyal.

The director of the U.S. National Security Agency, Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also heads the US Cyber Command, was dismissed on Thursday with NSA deputy director Wendy Noble.

Following the news, Loomer posted on X: “NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

A top immigration attorney at the Department of Justice was placed on indefinite leave Saturday after he questioned the deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador, according to The New York Times.

A letter obtained by the paper which had been sent to Erez Reuveni, the acting deputy director of the immigration litigation division, states that he was suspended by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for not following “a directive from your superiors.”

This comes after Reuveni was promoted just two weeks ago. He’s one of several career officials who have faced demotion, suspension, a transfer, or been fired for not following directions from Trump appointees.

Attorney General Pam Bondi told the Times, “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States.”

“Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences,” she added.

Arguing that U.S. consumers won’t bear the brunt of Trump’s tariff plan, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC News that countries are “angry” about the sweeping levies — and dozens are trying to negotiate deals.

“The countries are angry and retaliating and, by the way, coming to the table,” he said, citing a report that said more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation because they realize “they bear a lot of the tariff.”

“I don’t think that you’re going to see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S.,” he added, before conceding there might be some increase in prices.

There’s trouble in Trumpland; Tesla CEO and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, has taken public swipes at Donald Trump’s adviser on trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, who helped shape the president’s reciprocal tariff policy that tanked markets across the world.

Musk is typically vocal in his support and defense of the president, but has been quiet since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement that killed $2.5 trillion from the U.S. stock market — a loss of value that cost the Tesla CEO more than $30bn, according to CNBC.

On X, which Musk owns, he took swipes at Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist who advises Trump on trade. Navarro who was originally tapped for a spot in the White House by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is the author of books on China and the economic threats he says the nation poses to the U.S.

Graig Graziosi has the details.

Saturday Night Live’s James Austin Johnson took to the stage as President Donald Trump, promising to “Make America Great Depression Again” in a spoof of the president’s “Liberation Day” announcement in which he detailed his widespread tariffs.

“Thank you all for coming out to hear about tariffs. My favorite word, tariff, which, of course, is short for a-terrific-idea,” said Trump, calling the tax on Americans the “backbone of my incredible plan for our economy.”

“It’s actually even better than a plan, because it’s a series of random numbers, like the numbers on the computer screen in Severance,” he added. “You have no idea what the hell they mean, but I know what the numbers mean … They mean we’re gonna make America wealthy again. You know you’re gonna check your stock portfolio in a couple days and think ‘I’m almost too wealthy.’”

But before all that, the president said, “We’re going to do MAGDA — Make America Great Depression Again … It’ll be better than great. It’ll be a fantastic, unbelievable depression, the likes of which have never been seen before.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.