The Trump Bukele Deportation Problem is Crazy, Josh Shapiro Assassination Attempt Updates
PDS Published 04/14/2025
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Y’all this White House press conference started off crazy and then just went off the rails.
Right, so on Monday Donald Trump hosted Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele [Pronounce] at the Oval Office, where they celebrated the deportation of immigrants from the U.S. to El Salvador. [B roll]
Deportations mostly of Venezuelan migrants which critics have called inhumane because they’re now in a high-security prison that’s been likened to a forced labor camp.
With critics also calling the move illegal because when a judge ordered a plane carrying migrants there to turn around and come back, the White House ignored them, and Bukele posted “Oopsie … too late.”
So at Monday’s event, some reporters took the opportunity to ask both men about that, and specifically Kilmar Abrego Garcia, [Pronounce 00:21].
The Maryland man whom the White House previously said was mistakenly deported due to an administrative error.
Right, he was a father of three with no criminal record, and a court order shielded him from deportation.
So a federal court ordered the White House to “facilitate and effectuate” his return.
But the White House resisted, saying it would do so if the Supreme Court ordered it to.
Which is what happened, with the Supreme Court upholding the lower court’s order.
But then on Sunday, the White House argued in a court filing that it was still not obligated to help the man get back home.
All of which took us to Monday, with someone asking Bukele directly if he’d let Abrego Garcia go. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 20:23 - 20:37]
But if Bukele claimed that he doesn’t have the power to return Abrego Garcia, the White House claimed that it didn’t have that power either.
With Attorney general Pam Bondai saying:
[Clip, 17:11 - 17:16]
And White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller claiming that Garcia was an MS13 member, that he was illegal, and that the White House was obligated to deport him.
But then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemed to suggest the president can deport people whether the courts agree or not.
[Clip, 21:16 - 21:26]
And Stephen Miller immediately agreed with that, so it’s unclear whether he thinks they’ve been okayed by the Judiciary, or the judiciary’s opinion doesn’t matter.
But when a reporter sought clarification from Trump himself, this happened.
[Clip, 21:54 - 22:15]
And then, when the next reporter asked him how many illegal immigrants he wants to send to El Salvador, he replied “as many as possible,” and even seemed to suggest that U.S. citizens should go too.
[Clip, 25:02 - 25:23]
And when a reporter asked him to clarify if he meant U.S. citizens, he was like, uh yeah, duh.
[Clip, 37:00 - 37:05]
So for a lot of people, this felt like watching America slowly becoming a police state, and now even citizens, not to mention legal immigrants, are scared.
But that’s the news, that’s some opinion, now I want to hear from y’all. How do you feel about everything we’re seeing?
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The White House just murdered thousands of innocent people… on paper.
Right, what I mean is that the Trump administration selected over 6,300 immigrants, revoked their temporary legal status, and then declared them legally dead. [Headline]
Doing this by moving their names and Social Security numbers, which they had reportedly obtained legally, into the Death Master File, a Social Security database of deceased people.
Now as anyone mistakenly declared dead intimately knows, this completely turns your life inside out.
With experts likening it to “digital murder” and being “financially paralyzed” overnight.
This because the database is used by government agencies, employers, banks, creditors and landlords to check the status of people they work with.
So if you’re falsely declared dead, you could be cut off from your legal employment, your bank accounts, your credit cards, your government benefits, your insurance and your loans, meaning your home could be foreclosed.
Which is why experts tell The New York Times and The Washington Post that this move by the White House is clearly illegal. [Quote, find “strips them”]
Right, because first of all, it strips living people of privacy protections on the presumption that they’re dead. [Same quote]
With an attorney telling The Post that Social Security sells its death information to creditors, pension companies, life insurers and credit reporting firms. [Quote, find “agency sells”]
And then secondly, if done knowingly, which the White House has admitted is true, the move could amount to illegally falsifying government records.
Right, I mean just to be clear about what’s happening here, sources told The Times that the immigrants were given fake dates of death. [Quote, find “dates of death”]
Now according to The Post, agency staff had been warning that this might happen as early as February. [Quote, find “alarm”]
Because they realized that anybody granted the appropriate permissions could just arbitrarily declare people dead without having to actually prove the death. [Quote same link, find “appropriate”]
For example by citing medical records or a death certificate. [Same quote]
But apparently that flaw wasn’t patched, so now over 6,000 people have effectively been made non-persons to get them to self-deport.
Though reportedly at least some officials recognized the illegality of what was happening and tried to resist.
With a senior administrator who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts reportedly pushing back against Scott Coulter, an investment firm founder installed as the new chief information officer by Elon Musk last month. [Image and Quote same link, find “Greg”]
Telling him that the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead, according to three sources. [Same assets]
But on Thursday, security guards reportedly showed up at the administrator’s office in the agency’s Maryland headquarters and marched him out of the building. [Image]
With The Post reporting that he was placed on paid leave, possibly severing his 25-year career. [Quote same link, find “paid leave”]
Now to be clear, the White House isn’t denying that it did all this.
Right, the press secretary claimed that in declaring immigrants dead, they were just “protecting lawful American citizens and their hard-earned Social Security benefits, and ensuring illegal immigrants will no longer receive such economic entitlements.” [Quote same link]
Then adding, “Anyone who disagrees with the common sense policies of this Administration can find a new job.” [Same quote]
So the White House claims the people it’s declared dead are convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists.” [Quote]
But it hasn’t provided any evidence of those claims or explained how it concluded that.
And we’ve already learned from The Post that the affected migrants include a 13-year-old, a 14-year-old, two 16-year-olds, one person in their 80s and a handful in their 70s. [Quote, find “13”]
With The Times also reporting that in addition to the 13-year-old, there were seven other minors. [Quote, find “seven”]
And in case you’re wondering, reportedly some agency staff have since checked some of the youngest immigrants against data the agency typically uses to search for criminal history and found nothing. [Quote, find “youngest”]
Also keep in mind, by all accounts these were not illegal immigrants; they entered the country and obtained their Social Security numbers lawfully.
But some officials say the White House is gonna expand the death database method to even more people.
And pretty soon, a lot more are about to become potential targets.
Because over half a million Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians who arrived under Biden’s parole program are set to lose their legal status this month.
And the government’s already begun revoking parole for nearly a million more people who entered the U.S. using the CBP One app.
But at the same time we’re also seeing legal challenges brewing.
With the Social Security general counsel’s office reportedly preparing an opinion that the death database move violates privacy law. [Quote, find “opinion”]
And a lawsuit already filed against the agency is now using the news to argue that the White House violated a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE from the agency’s systems with personally identifiable information. [Quote, find “restraining”]
But while particularly shocking, this death database thing is just one way Trump is repurposing government agencies for immigration enforcement.
Like in February, Social Security reportedly agreed to hand over the last known addresses of nearly 100,000 people to the Department of Homeland Security. [Quote, find “98,000”]
Something which officials say has never happened on this scale before.
And then there’s the news that the Treasury agreed to hand over tax data to the DHS so they could track down and deport migrants.
With the acting head of the IRS recently resigning over that move. [Headline]
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Is the mess worth the money?
That’s the question when it comes to the chaos that’s been happening at “Minecraft” screenings all over the country, as the film just beat out the new “Captain America” to become the biggest box office hit of the year so far in the US.
Right, it has only been in theaters for 10 days and already made $280 million domestically, globally earning $550 million,[]
So it really snuck up as the surprise success the industry needed, but like I said, it comes with a side of anarchy.
Because at a certain point in the movie, Jack Black’s character shouts “Chicken Jockey” as one of the creatures from the video game appears, and this has prompted viewers to just go nuts.
They scream and jump and throw popcorn, sometimes people climb on each other's shoulders, in at least one case, it someone brought a real chicken.
And as you can imagine, this creates quite a mess in the theater.
And obviously, not every showing is full of mayhem, but some have been wild enough that a theater in New Jersey banned unaccompanied kids from seeing the movie without adult supervision.
With the theater also giving a little parenting lecture on Facebook, writing:
“Large groups of unsupervised boys engaged in completely unacceptable behavior, including vandalism…If your son was at Township Theatre last night, we strongly encourage you to have a conversation with him about his behavior.”[]
Local news in Alaska reporting that police had to escort a group of teenage boys out of the theater over their behavior.
And according to the Salt Lake Tribune, in the case of the people who brought a real chicken, they were kicked out, too.[]
This as other theaters have had to issue general warnings about bad behavior during the film.
And this has prompted a ton of criticism, right, people seeing the mess made and writing things like:
“buying a huge bag of popcorn just so you can piss the cinema workers off when jack black says chicken jockey is frankly quite insane and rude.”[]
Right, arguing it's disrespectful to both the people who just wanted to see the movie with their families and to the people who work minimum wage jobs in the theater.
But some have defended the trend, including the movie’s director Jared Hess.
With him telling Entertainment Weekly:
"I'm just so happy that people are finding joy in going back to cinemas and seeing things as a community, as a group of people. It's like we've become so isolated on our devices, and it's just fun to experience things as a group of human beings.
"It's funny because I think it's just literally cheering and throwing popcorn, which is so funny to me that cops are getting called for popcorn…But, man, I'm just glad people are making memories with their friends and families."
You also had some tweets noting that Jack Black visited a theater recently and warned against throwing popcorn and joining the chicken jockey trend,
But based on video of this, some have argued that it seemed less like a reprimand and more like him joining the joke:
“Please no throwing popcorn, and also no [inaudible], and absolutely no CHICKEN JOCKEYYY! [screaming] I am Steve!” (0:04-0:26)
Right, saying he seemed in on the fun there.
And like I said, while this debate about the chicken jockey trend has been going on, the film has been a huge box office hit.
And it is far from the first movie that has benefited from a sort of audience participation element.
Right, you might remember the #GentleMinions trend of 2022 that had kids wearing suits to theaters, some noting this helped it make tons of money, but also did cause some headaches for theater workers who dealt with rowdy behavior as a result. [][]
Then there was the Eras Tour movie, which had Swifties singing and dancing in theaters, which prompted a debate on movie theater etiquette, but did not stop it breaking box office records.
There’s also trends like Barbie, which was obviously a hit and people were just excited to wear pink to the theater.
But the interactive element does seem to get people more interested in going, it creates these big trends people don’t want to miss, they want to feel a part of it.
So I would love to know your thoughts on this, especially in the case of Minecraft since it's the latest one.
Does this trend cross the line to being disrespectful, is it all in good fun, do more movies need to find a way to make the crowd feel like they are part of something?
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Pennsylvania authorities have arrested and charged a man for setting fire to the governor’s mansion while Josh Shapiro and his family were asleep inside.
According to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, video surveillance showed the man climbing over a wall and entering the grounds of the mansion at around 2 a.m., successfully evading the governor’s security detail outside the residence.
He then used a hammer to break a window of the mansion and throw a Molotov Cocktail into the residence, igniting what officials described as a “substantial fire.”
After that, he moved to another window and was able to enter the residence, where he then started two more fires with two other Molotov Cocktails before fleeing over the same wall.
And while police said that the fires caused significant damage to the mansion, thankfully, the governor and his family were safely evacuated, and no one was injured during the attack.
Now, as for the suspect, according to a police affidavit, a woman who identified herself as his ex-partner contacted authorities to tell them that he had confessed to the attack.
And not long after, the man turned himself in to state police and admitted that he had started the fires.
With state troopers then arresting and charging him with attempted homicide, aggravated arson, burglary, reckless endangerment, terrorism, loitering, and two counts of aggravated assault. []
Now, notably here, officials have not yet publicly released a motive for the attack.
But the affidavit says that he admitted that he harbored “hatred” for Shapiro and that he knew it was possible Shapiro and his family were inside the mansion and could have been harmed by his actions.
And when authorities asked the man what he would have done if he had found Shapiro inside, he told them he would have beaten him with his hammer.
But, beyond that, we don’t know a whole lot about this man.
According to reports, he describes himself as a certified master mechanic on social media and has a criminal record and has had several run-ins with the law in Pennslyvania.
In addition to several traffic violations, multiple outlets have reported that he was charged with forgery in 2015 and sentenced to 18 years of probation.
And in 2023, he was charged with assault — a pending charge for which he was scheduled to appear in court this week.
But you also had NBC reporting that he pleaded guilty to forgery again in 2016.
Beyond that, it’s also been reported that he was critical of the government on social media and shared various anti-Joe Biden posts, with NBC writing that he “seemed to reject Biden’s 2020 presidential win.”
But you also had USA Today claiming that the man “does not appear to be a Trump supporter either,” noting at least one post where he wrote disparaging Trump and other political leaders more broadly.
But, of course, this is a developing story, so new information will continue to pour in as investigations continue.
In fact, just this morning, state police said in a press release that the man had been taken to the hospital and was receiving treatment “due to a medical event not connected to this incident or his arrest.”
Now, as far as how Governor Shapiro has responded, he described his version of events in an emotional press conference yesterday in front of the visibly damaged residence:
“Last night, at approximately two o'clock in the morning, while my family and I were asleep upstairs here at the governor's residence, one of the state troopers assigned to our detail banged on our door, woke us up, and told us we had an emergency and needed to leave immediately. Together, we secured all of our children, our two dogs, our family that was staying with us, and the troopers safely evacuated us from the governor's residence. Last night, we experienced an attack not just on our family but on the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania here at the governor's residence.” 00:16 - 1:04
With Shapiro :
“We do know that this attack was targeted. We don't know the person's specific motive yet, but we do know a few truths. First, this type of violence is not okay. This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society, and I don't give a damn if it's coming from one particular side or the other, directed at one particular party or another, or one particular person or another. It is not okay and it has to stop. We have to be better than this, and we have a responsibility to all be better.” 3:44 - 4:33
And then going on to raise the possibility that the attack could have been motivated by antisemitism, noting that it came just hours after he and his family had hosted a Seder (Say-Durr) to celebrate Passover — one of the holiest Jewish holidays:
“If he was trying to terrorize our family, our friends, the Jewish community who joined us for a Passover seder in that room last night, hear me on this: we celebrated our faith last night proudly. And in a few hours, we will celebrate our second seder of Passover again proudly. No one will deter me or my family or any Pennsylvanian from celebrating their faith openly and proudly.” 5:04 - 5:44
And throughout the presser, the governor repeatedly applauded law enforcement for their response, adding that the FBI is also investigating the situation and thanking both President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel for their support.
Though, to that point, state police leaders also said that there will be a security review to prevent future incidents.
But, at least publicly, it’s unclear right now how the man was able to get into the property and enter the mansion without getting stopped by Shapiro’s security detail.
So there’s still a lot of moving parts and unknowns right now.
But, with this, we’ve seen many other politicians from both sides of the aisle condemning acts of political violence.
This inlcuding House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who issued a statement slamming the act and adding:
“Political violence of any kind is never acceptable and it is especially unconscionable to attack a Jewish family during the first night of Passover. Everyone responsible must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”[]
You also had Vice President JD Vance echoing that, posting on X:
“Thanks be to God that Governor Shapiro and his family were unharmed in this attack. Really disgusting violence, and I hope whoever did it is brought swiftly to justice.”[]
And while other people in the administration have made very similar remarks expressing relief that Shapiro and his family were safe, Trump himself has had a… uh… shall we say “different” approach.
Late last night, nearly a full day after the attack, when reporters asked Trump if he had a comment on the arson, he responded:
“I just heard about it, no, I’ll have to look into it.”
And then when asked about the matter during a press conference today, Trump focused on distancing himself from the attacker:
“The attacker was not a fan of Trump, I understand. Just from what I’ve read and what I’ve been told. The attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody, he’s probably just a whack job. And certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.” 00:01 - 00:15
But yeah, as I said before, this is a developing situation that’s subject to change, and for now, we’ll just have to keep our eyes on it.
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What the hell is going on with tariffs?
The latest confusion started on Friday when US Customs and Border Protection announced that a huge list of electronics would be exempt from the massive tariffs Trump enacted.
This list included pretty much every electronic consumers could think of and was a welcome surprise for many people, as critics have long claimed that targeting electronics didn’t make a ton of sense.
Right, if the tariffs are supposed to drive up US-production of these goods, you’d think it was even possible to make them in the US.
But until US manufacturing and workers do A LOT of catching up, a lot of this is literally impossible to make here.
So for consumers and tech companies, this was all around great news…
But critics of the administration felt this was a sign of weakness, writing things like:
“Trump just blinked. Here’s a list of Chinese electronic products that he exempted from tariffs, late last evening. So, no. You’re not going to have to pay double for your next mobile phone or tablet. He’s also just exposed to Beijing exactly where our trade weaknesses are.” []
Others like Senator Chris Murphy claimed this was just a favor to the companies that supported Trump:
“So Donald Trump just announced a massive series of exemptions to the tariffs, and the exemptions are good for the multi-billion dollar companies that are paying Trump money. [He goes on to say it doesn’t make sense to lift the tariff on the high tech jobs the US wants and keep tariffs on the other markets that the US could never sustain anyways].” @0:00-0:43
Trump had an issue with the way critics like Murphy were talking about the tariffs, writing on Truth Social:
“NOBODY is getting “off the hook” for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst! There was no Tariff “exception” announced on Friday.”
He went on to say that Friday’s announcement was just putting electronics -- which are mostly from China -- in a different tariff category.
Granted, that’s a major difference, but a 20% tariff is still back-breaking for many consumers and businesses.
Trump blamed the confusion on “Fake News,” who he claims knew the tariffs were just being recategorized
So did they lie -- or even lie by omission?
Obviously, we haven’t seen how EVERY outlet out there covered this, but the major players generally stated the facts:
For example, here’s how Al Jazeera reported it:
“Smartphones, laptops and a host of other tech components will be spared from the Trump administration’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs”, including steep 125 percent duties on imports from China, according to a notice issued by US Customs and Border Protection.”
No where in the article does it explicitly state that electronics would still be hit with a 20% tariff.
Instead, it kind relies on the reader knowing that there’s a 20% baseline tariff and that the 125% increase was ON TOP of that number.
-- Which isn’t really a given since the Trump administration had to recently clarify that.
But to say that all “Fake News” presented the tariffs in this way just isn’t true.
CBS News explicitly stated that there would still be a 20% tariff on goods -- and that was done BEFORE Trump’s Truth Social post. []
And CNBC similarly said that a 20% tariff would still be around -- and that was even going out on a limb because at the time the White House hadn’t given them clarification.
We can’t forget King of Fake News The New York Times similarly mentioned that there would still be a 20% tariff. []
We’re not going to go into every single example but I think you get the point.
This seems more of an issue that people only read headlines, which by their nature boil down the info to just the essentials.[]
Also, this entire situation actually brings up a discussion that we have internally all the time: at what point is a piece of information too much?
Right, in Al Jazeera’s case, they kind of relied on the reader knowing a ton of baseline information to then come to a conclusion.
And every writer relies on that because otherwise stories become clunky.
Right, let’s say I’m talking about the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games and say that travelers are worried about going because of recent travel restrictions put in place.
Do I need to explicitly state that these are policies put in place by the United States?
Or can I safely assume that 99% of people listening will know that LA is in the US?
Obviously that’s an extreme example and reasonable minds will disagree about where that line is.
So let me know what you think down below about that, and also about this story in general.
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And for your Monday daily dose of good news, I’d like you to meet Doug Ruch (Roo-sh).
Back in 2021, Doug was diagnosed with prostate cancer and he went through radiation twice but in January, he learned that his cancer spread to the bones in his leg and his liver. []
And it had become terminal.
His options were to go through chemotherapy and get maybe 2 years or to skip treatment altogether and die in roughly 18 months. []
After some reflection, Doug decided he wanted to spend his last days helping people - saying,
“I thought to myself, I have two choices. I can sit at home and wait to die, or I can go out and live.” []
And that’s when Doug’s plan came into being - he was going to volunteer in every state across the country.
He called his project “Dying to Serve” and started a GoFundMe to fundraise because he’s spent his life savings on cancer treatment.
And as Doug’s story spread across social media, that GoFundMe raised thousands of dollars.
So Doug quit his job, packed up his Chevy Malibu with all of his stuff, found a good cross-country route to follow, and signed up for shifts through several different volunteer organizations. []
His journey started in Dallas, Texas at a food pantry where he sorted, packaged, and distributed food. []
Since then, he’s been to Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Southern and Northern California, Oregon, and Washington state.
He’s worked at food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, senior centers, and hospitality houses. []
Serving lunch or dinner to people who are unhoused, elderly or medically ill; sorting and packaging goods to be donated to food pantries; and delivering meals to homebound individuals. []
And he’s driven over 4,000 miles since kicking things off in Texas.
At first, he scheduled volunteering shifts for every day or so but the physical limitations his cancer has caused forced him to drop to working a shift roughly every 3 days. []
And as he’s taking this trip, he’s also finding ways to do things for himself - taking the scenic routes and going to baseball games. []
But as much as he enjoys the volunteering he’s doing, there are still things Doug worries about.
Like whether or not his health will stay good enough to finish, whether his car will break down, if he can make the GoFundMe cash stretch long enough to finish his project. []
To that last point, he has accepted some help along the way - taking discounts at hotels and restaurants and auto repair shops after the owners heard his story. []
And he’s also gained some notoriety within the organizations that he’s volunteering for.
But he isn’t looking to get famous - telling the Washington Post,
“I don’t want to be some pseudo celebrity, because I’m not. I’m just a guy that needed to balance the scales and do some good in his life.” []
He’s now headed south from Seattle and he says he’s hoping to hit the East Coast by June and then fly out to Hawaii and Alaska and hopefully, finish up this project by the fall. []
And if his health keeps up after visiting every state, Doug says that he’ll keep volunteering - saying,
“If I can inspire hundreds or thousands of people nationwide to volunteer, even if it’s three or four hours a month, then I can die happy.” []
So thank you Doug, for doing what you’re doing - you are absolutely our BAMF of the day.
