Trump Has Despicable New Way to Carry Out His Deportations (2025)

Mere hours after the markets were slightly buoyed by a White House announcement that Donald Trump’s global tariff plan would see a 90-day pause, the president decided to reverse course and threaten more tariffs.

In a nighttime post to Truth Social Thursday, Trump warned that Mexico could be subject to a higher tariff rate as punishment for allegedly violating an 81-year-old water treaty.

“Mexico OWES Texas 1.3 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 Water Treaty, but Mexico is unfortunately violating their Treaty obligation,” Trump wrote. “This is very unfair, and it is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly.

“Last year, the only Sugar Mill in Texas CLOSED, because Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas Farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed, but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help the Farmers,” he continued.

“THAT ENDS NOW!” the president wrote. “I will make sure Mexico doesn’t violate our Treaties, and doesn’t hurt our Texas Farmers. Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until Mexico complies with the 1944 Water Treaty. My Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, is standing up for Texas Farmers, and we will keep escalating consequences, including TARIFFS and, maybe even SANCTIONS, until Mexico honors the Treaty, and GIVES TEXAS THE WATER THEY ARE OWED!”

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum didn’t outright reject the claim that her country had violated the water deal, but instead cited a three-year drought induced by climate change as the reason for the decreased shipments, noting on X that “to the extent water is available, Mexico has been complying.

“I have instructed the Secretaries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, to immediately contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of State,” Sheinbaum wrote. “I am confident that, as with other issues, an agreement will be reached.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s hit-or-miss approach to enacting tariffs has sent the U.S. markets into a tailspin in little more than a week, leaving some financial experts believing that the president had done irreparable damage to America’s trade reputation and its economy. Banks and investment firms are still predicting a high possibility of a recession, even after Trump caved to mounting domestic pressure Wednesday and announced a 90-day pause to his sweeping tariff proposal for 200 countries.

China has fired back at Donald Trump’s tariff hike with one of its own.

The country raised tariff rates against the U.S. from 85 percent to 125 percent Friday morning, following Thursday’s confirmation from the Trump administration that it was placing tariffs of 145 percent on China—125 percent as a reciprocal measure, plus an additional 20 percent because Trump thinks Beijing isn’t doing anything about fentanyl.

“Even if the U.S. continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of world economy,” the Chinese Finance Ministry said in a statement, which CNBC translated.

“With tariff rates at the current level, there is no longer a market for U.S. goods imported into China,” the statement added, saying that “if the U.S. government continues to increase tariffs on China, Beijing will ignore.”

Despite its tough talk, China’s Foreign Ministry said that it was open to negotiate with the U.S. on an equal footing in a separate statement, refuting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s comments on Wednesday that “it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system.”

Donald Trump definitely isn’t spending government funds to throw himself a birthday parade, according to the White House.

The administration denied Thursday that Trump was organizing a military procession to celebrate his 79th birthday in June. That is, despite the fact that several local leaders—including Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis—confirmed to Politico that they had been in conversation with Trump officials to arrange the summertime military procession.

Trump’s birthday on June 14 coincidentally (or perhaps conveniently) falls on the same date as the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army.

“As we enter 2025, the Army’s 250th birthday will be celebrated with a series of commemorations, including leadership engagements, community outreach events and other events showcasing Army units, history, lineage and esprit de corps,” read a February press release by the U.S. Army. It did not make mention of a parade.

Trump wanted a parade in 2018, but the idea was quickly shot down by local and military officials who cited enormous estimated damages to Pennsylvania Avenue and torched the hefty price tag involved in dragging heavy equipment through the U.S. capital. The president reportedly was inspired after watching a Bastille Day celebration in Paris in 2017.

“It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen.… We’re gonna have to try and top it,” Trump said at the time, “but we had a lot of planes going over and a lot of military might, and it was really a beautiful thing to see.”

But Washington was unconvinced.

“The military leaders said it would cost too much, nearly $90 million; Mayor Bowser ridiculed the idea on the Twitter system and said it would cost us $20 million just for public safety,” Washington City Paper’s Tom Sherwood told NBC News 4 earlier this week. “So he canceled it—angrily canceled it. But this time around, it doesn’t sound like he is gonna cancel.”

President Donald Trump falsely suggested Thursday that autism may be caused by a “shot,” parroting his anti-vax health secretary.

During a Cabinet meeting, the president discussed an increase in the rate of autism diagnoses, but seemed to invent some statistics to do it.

“It was one in 10,000 children had autism, and now it’s one in 31. Not 31,000, 31,” Trump said.

In reality, about one in 36 children aged 8 years old have been identified with autism spectrum disorder, according to the CDC. That’s an increase from 2000, when only one in 150 children born in 1992 were diagnosed with autism.

Sitting only a few seats away from the president was Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent figure in the anti-vaccine movement, who used the one-in-10,000 statistic during his Senate confirmation hearings. It’s entirely unclear where he got this number, but Trump has since repeated it multiple times.

“That is horrible—that’s a horrible statistic, isn’t it? And there’s gotta be something artificial out there that’s doing it,” Trump continued, turning to Kennedy.

“So you think you’re gonna have a pretty good idea, huh?” Trump asked.

“We will know by September,” Kennedy replied.

“There will be no bigger news conference than that, so that’s it. If you can come up with that answer: where you stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it’s a shot. But something’s causing it,” Trump said.

Kennedy has previously claimed that autism comes from vaccines, and it seems that the president has officially bought in—or is at least open to the possibility. Trump’s newest comment comes months after a leaked phone call with Kennedy in July, where the president could be heard tying vaccines to autism.

Meanwhile, experts have attributed some of the rise in autism diagnoses to a widening definition of autism spectrum disorder, which encapsulates a broader range of symptoms, as well as people being more aware of and willing to get diagnostic testing, according to ABC News.

At the White House Thursday, Secretary of State Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump admitted that U.S. troops have been deployed to the Panama Canal.

“We’re taking back the canal. China’s had too much influence, Obama and others let them creep in. We along with Panama are pushing them out, Sir,” Hegseth said to Trump at a Cabinet meeting held in front of the press, adding that after his trip to the country earlier this week, President José Raúl Mulino spoke positively of partnering with U.S. troops to get “the Communist Chinese out.”

“We’ve moved a lot of troops to Panama, and, uh, filled up some areas that we used to have, we didn’t have any longer, but we have them now, and I think it’s in very good control, right?” Trump said, turning to Hegseth, who replied, “Yes, Sir.”

The exchange seems to indicate that Trump has moved to control the canal and is working with Panama’s president, despite Trump previously antagonizing the country by expressing the desire to retake it. Hegseth’s visit to Panama earlier this week seemed to calm down tensions between the two countries, with Hegseth acknowledging Panama’s sovereignty over the canal.

But Trump asked the military last month to draw up plans for retaking the canal, meaning that he prefers to have that option on the table. Panama has taken steps to try to appease Trump, making a deal to reimburse U.S. ships for any transit fees for going through the canal, signing a security cooperation agreement, and agreeing to allow U.S. troops to resume jungle warfare training.