Trump Administration can resume some deportations under Alien Enemies Act | The Excerpt

On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: A Supreme Court ruling will allow the Trump administration to resume the deportation of certain immigrants. The U.S. stock market had a turbulent day after President Trump's newly imposed tariffs went into effect over the weekend. Paste BN Congress Reporter Savannah Kuchar explains the impact the stock market and newly imposed tariffs have on President Donald Trump’s approval ratings. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court placed a hold on the return of a Maryland father mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Paste BN White House Reporter Zac Anderson talks about how some Trump allies are sounding off in the tariff debate. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces backlash after publicly supporting the MMR vaccine. 

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Cody Godwin:

Good morning. I'm Cody Godwin in for Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. This is The Excerpt.

Today, the Supreme Court lets the Trump administration resume deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. Plus, Trump holds firm on tariffs despite a mess in the markets. And let's talk approval ratings.

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The Trump administration can resume the deportation of certain immigrants a divided Supreme Court said yesterday. The move marks a partial victory for President Donald Trump's hard-line approach to immigration. The decision allows the Justice Department to continue using a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants it says are members of a Venezuelan crime gang. The ruling says the immigrants brought their challenge, which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the wrong court. The detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia. The majority wrote in an unsigned opinion that lifted a judge's order temporarily blocking deportations without hearings. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent that the decision is "indefensible". Trump wrote on Truth Social that it was a great day for justice in America.

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The battered US stock market endured a turbulent day yesterday, sinking then rising before mostly sinking again. Stocks fought back in the afternoon, but it wasn't enough to combat conflicting tariff news before the day's close. Trump last week announced a 10% tariff on all countries effective over the weekend. Even higher tariffs on dozens of nations are set to start tomorrow. A 34% levy was placed on China on top of recently imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese goods. China hit back with a 34% tariff on all US imports while other countries around the world denounced Trump's moves and threatened their own retaliatory tariffs.

European leaders met in Luxembourg yesterday to discuss the European Union's response to Trump's latest tariffs and global stock markets plunged. Meanwhile, Trump said Monday that he's not considering pausing his recently imposed tariffs. Asked about the mixed messages on the topic from White House officials, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office, "There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations because there are things that we need beyond tariffs. We need open borders."

You can stay with usatoday.com for more coverage of Trump's tariffs and what's next.

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President Trump's approval ratings are taking a hit amid tariff turmoil. Taylor Wilson spoke with Paste BN Congress Reporter Savannah Kuchar for more.

Taylor Wilson:

Hello Savannah.

Savannah Kuchar:

Hi Taylor. Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for hopping on. Another busy and big week. So what are we seeing really over the last week or so though when it comes to President Donald Trump's approval ratings?

Savannah Kuchar:

So over the last week or so, there's been a number of polls that have come out showing President Trump's approval rating taking a little bit of a dip, not huge crashing numbers, but some slipping, particularly most of these polls are showing the approval rating dropping below 50%, where he had been pretty much holding steady across polls above 50% since starting his second term in January.

For example, Reuters Ipsos had a poll last week where the president's approval rating was down to 43%. And comparing that to similar surveys that they had done back in January around inauguration, Trump was higher, around 47% at that time. Another poll by the Wall Street Journal had Trump, again, similarly dropping down a bit, around 46% approval rating this week.

Taylor Wilson:

So Savannah, what are the main, I guess, factors or reasons that people put forward?

Savannah Kuchar:

So it looks like some of that is really being spurred by dissatisfaction with the economy. Right now there is a trade war that's been kind of incited by Trump's tariffs, as well as we've seen the stock markets take a hit from that as well. And people are not happy and it seems to be that they are taking that frustration out in their opinions of the president. They're citing dissatisfaction with the economy, specifically with Trump's handling of the economy.

Taylor Wilson:

And when it comes to tariffs specifically, how is that playing out? Do we have any specific numbers, any sense on kind of what the public's view is on tariffs specifically in polling?

Savannah Kuchar:

We do. A lot of these same polls that are looking at Trump's approval rating are also evaluating how people feel about the tariffs. And the Wall Street Journal's poll from Friday found that about 54% of voters said they were opposed to Trump's tariffs. This poll was conducted before he had officially unveiled his official plan, but it came after he had been promising some pretty aggressive tariffs for quite a while, including during the campaign.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. So Savannah, you and I are talking here at the beginning of another, what I think many of us imagine to be a long week. It could have some twists and turns to it. Is there any sense that Trump could pull back some favorability if he were to, I guess, make any changes or walk back any of his tariff moves or recent moves in general?

Savannah Kuchar:

I mean, your prediction is as good as mine in terms of what voters are going to feel exactly. But it's possible, especially looking at the fact that these approval ratings have started slipping amid, like I said, sinking stock markets and a trade war that is making a lot of people very anxious about the economy. So it's definitely possible just given the fact that these approval ratings started slipping amid the economic anxiety. If these economic conditions turned around, it's possible that we could also see Trump's approval ratings inch back up alongside that.

Taylor Wilson:

Savannah Kuchar covers Congress for Paste BN. Thanks as always, Savannah.

Savannah Kuchar:

Thank you.

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Cody Godwin:

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily placed a hold on a judge's order that the Trump administration must bring back a Maryland father it had mistakenly deported to El Salvador. The decision yesterday came hours after government attorneys asked the Supreme Court to block an earlier ruling that gave the administration until the end of the day to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. Roberts' decision will give the court more time to review the case. He ordered lawyers in the case to respond by 5 PM Eastern Time this afternoon.

As you may have heard here on the show, federal immigration agents arrested Abrego Garcia last month after pulling him over near his home in Beltsville, Maryland. Officials have contended he's a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, though they have presented no evidence to back up that claim. Abrego Garcia, who is originally from El Salvador contended he was not a gang member and that his parents sent him to the US when he was a teen because he was under pressure to join a rival gang of MS-13.

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Trump's trade war is putting high-profile allies on edge. While some in his orbit have supported the tariffs, others aren't so sure, exposing cracks in his coalition. Taylor Wilson spoke with Paste BN White House reporter Zac Anderson to learn more.

Taylor Wilson:

Zac, thanks for hopping on today.

Zac Anderson:

Great to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

Zac, you write that these tariffs are exposing really some cracks in the Trump coalition. So let's run through some of the folks you have here in the piece, starting with Bill Ackman. Can you just remind us who Bill is and what some of his forceful language that he's had on this issue?

Zac Anderson:

Yeah. He's a billionaire hedge fund manager who endorsed Trump, and he really came out aggressively against the tariffs over the weekend. He said that they could cause an economic nuclear winner. He said that they would hit poor people the worst and that this is not what people voted for. So a long post on X that was really urging Trump to pause the tariffs and raise huge economic concerns about them, an incredible figure on economic issues, an investor who runs a major hedge fund and is kind of one of those people who is the billionaire class that Trump courted very heavily during the campaign.

Taylor Wilson:

Well, speaking of that billionaire class, Elon Musk continues to be a player alongside this administration. I'd imagine, in fact, we know that he's lost a good chunk of his own personal wealth in a handful of days, though he's still the world's richest person. What's the pushback we've seen from him and namely, how did he split with Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro on this?

Zac Anderson:

Musk attacked Navarro on X over the weekend. Somebody posted something about how Navarro has a PhD from Harvard, so he is a very credible expert on these issues and Musk said something along the lines of, "Well, a PhD from Harvard is not a good thing. It's a bad thing," and agreed with another poster who said that it's people with Harvard degrees who are at the root of every crisis in this country.

Navarro is one of the loudest voices in favor of tariffs. He is a key economic advisor for Trump. He's been somebody who's extremely critical of the global trade practices over the years and has urged Trump to get tough on this and is one of the leading voices who has helped Trump devise this tariff system. So Musk going after him, attracted some attention.

Musk also posted a video online of Milton Friedman talking about the benefits of free trade. Friedman is a Nobel Prize winning economist, is sort of a hero to conservatives, just a staunch advocate for capitalism and free markets and advisor to Ronald Reagan.

Taylor Wilson:

As for some of the, I guess, podcast bros on the right, as some have called them, we've talked about the influence from these kinds of new media folks on younger Americans in particular, Zac previously. I know you circle some recent comments from Dave Portnoy and Joe Rogan. What have they been saying?

Zac Anderson:

Both of them have sort of expressed bafflement with aspects of what Trump is doing on tariffs. Portnoy is the owner of Barstool Sports and an influential figure online, especially with young men. He posted a video just talking about how much money he has lost since the tariffs went into effect. He said he is still supporting Trump and he is going to give him some time to see how this plays out. But he had some additional comments yesterday that we're calling this Orange Monday, and again, raising concerns about the tariffs.

And then you have Joe Rogan who Trump went on his podcast during the election. Has a massive audience, one of the most popular podcasts in the country, and he had earlier raised some concerns about this feud that Trump, I don't know if you want to call it a feud, whatever it is, where Trump has been talking about making Canada the 51st state and imposing tariffs on Canada. And Rogan has sort of been like, "Why are we fighting with Canada? This is dumb," and also raised the questions about the Canadian tariff.

Taylor Wilson:

As for Trump, Zac, how is he defending this as we start a new week? Is there any sense also that he will walk anything back, even if just rhetorically, or is he really leaning in at this point?

Zac Anderson:

No, he's all in at this point. He is doubling down, tripling down, really not backing off an inch. He's telling people to hang tight that this is going to take some time. He said yesterday that he's not going to pause the tariffs. There was some talk going around that that might happen, and there's been some confusion about whether these tariffs are a negotiating tactic or if he's going to keep them in place in the long run. He said it could be both, but he is not backing down an inch.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Lots still to come this week. Zac Anderson covers the White House for Paste BN. Thank you, Zach.

Zac Anderson:

Hey, thank you. Have a good one.

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Cody Godwin:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been widely maligned and celebrated as a vaccine skeptic. So when he wrote in a post on X over the weekend that "the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine" after visiting West Texas, shortly after a second unvaccinated child there died of the measles, social media users reacted. One user wrote, "This is so disappointing. Who has you compromised? Sell out." Another X user shared but infectious disease clinician scientist Dr. Neil Stone appreciated Kennedy's words writing that "he's absolutely 100% correct and I'm relieved to hear him say it." Still, many in the pro-vaccine community long ago wrote off Kennedy, and this shift is unlikely to win him much favor. "RFK is too little, too late," one person tweeted.

A second child died from the measles amid the current outbreak, which began in January and has resulted in nearly 500 cases in Texas and is spread across 21 states. The school aged child who wasn't vaccinated and had no underlying health conditions died on Thursday in the hospital from measles pulmonary failure according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Kennedy, who has a controversial history of questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines, including falsely linking them to autism, has said people are being successfully treated with vitamin A and cod liver oil for the highly contagious respiratory illness. Multiple children need a treatment for vitamin A toxicity last week.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Cody Godwin and Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.