“Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country.”

President Trump, on Truth Social

(New executive orders of note published this week)

The administration extended the federal hiring freeze on civilian employees within the executive branch through July 15, 2025. The freeze prohibits filling vacant federal positions or creating new ones, with exceptions for military personnel, positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, public safety, and certain other categories. White House >

Once a merit hiring plan is adopted, the memorandum stipulates that agencies "will be able to hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service" with appropriate exceptions. 

Over 260,000 employees have left the federal workforce, of the 2.3 million total. Here’s how the freeze is expected to affect everyday communities.

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Trump wants to make American seafood competitive again. This executive order aims to strengthen the U.S. fishing industry by reducing regulatory burdens on commercial fishing, combating unfair foreign trade practices, and enhancing domestic seafood production and exports. It directs the Secretary of Commerce to consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that "overly burden America's commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries. White House >

The order aims to address that U.S. fishermen face disadvantages from both excessive regulation and international competition. The U.S. imports nearly 90% of its seafood despite controlling extensive fishing grounds. Fishermen and seafood alliances across the country have shared their support, and happy fishermen make me happy.

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This executive order makes this national monument in the Pacific not-so-great. Tied to the above, the “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific” proclamation opens the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) to commercial fishing, allowing U.S.-flagged vessels to fish commercially within 50 to 200 nautical miles of the monument's boundaries. The proclamation justifies this change by arguing that "commercial fishing, if properly managed, does not threaten the monument's protected scientific and historic objects" and that most of the area’s population are migratory. White House >

Conservationists disagree. Alan Freidlander, former chief scientist for National Geographic's Pristine Seas project, stated that the "vast majority of the species are resident," bringing real and grave threat to an area that acts as a sanctuary for species such as endangered sea turtles, sharks and migratory birds.” Environmental groups are planning to sue.

"At a time when the climate crisis is threatening our fragile ocean ecosystem and costing us lives and livelihoods every year, President Trump's response is to gut protections for some of our nation's most important natural resources," Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii

Environmental groups have criticized the decision, arguing that the area is "home to some of the Earth's last pristine maritime environments.”

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250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord

Instead of focusing on the actual wars brewing, we’ve got a proclamation for the Revolutionary War. This proclamation officially designates April 19, 2025, as a day to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which apparently started the Revolutionary War, the “greatest fight for liberty in the history of the world." White House >

There are a ton of celebrations across the country honoring this event each year. This year. I read about only a handful of protests against it reported by local news. Read more about the divisiveness.

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Trump told reporters today that he’s “entitled” to deport people without trials, which comes after the Supreme Court blocked his administration from deporting suspected Venezuelan gang members without affording them due process. He believes it’s “not possible” to have trials for all of the people he wants to deport and “we are going to have a very dangerous country,” if he can’t move forward with his plans. The Guardian >

Hope that means we can send him somewhere without trial for an extended vacation, because he’s one of the most dangerous people here…

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The Supreme Court seems like it’ll uphold the Affordable Care Act's preventive services mandate, providing access to no-cost screenings, tests, HIV drugs, and counseling for the roughly 150 million Americans with private health insurance. We’ll know for sure when they issue a decision in June or early July. Axios >

The Supreme Court is conservative, not stupid. Trump has been talking about repealing the ACA in its entirety. And they know that even a partial appeal will have devastating implications: millions can lose coverage, premiums will become more expensive, and health care providers will lose an estimated $1.1T in revenue, upending the job market. Of course, this decision will disproportionately affect low-income community members. It’ll have a net positive impact on wealthy people who will pay less taxes. Learn more.

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Will parents be able to opt out of LGBTQ+ stories? Likely. During oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed to agree with the parents who shared wish to opt their children out of school curriculum that includes LGBTQ storylines. Axios >

The court's liberal justices questioned whether allowing families to opt out of exposing their kids to books with LGBTQ themes would create chaos, suggesting their ability to opt out of other curriculum. The school district in the lawsuit already tried opt-outs and said the policy became unwieldy. Either way, it’s not looking good for protecting stories reflecting marginalized groups in classrooms. Does that mean I could opt my kids out from learning about the Battles of Lexington and Concord? We’ll know for sure when they issue a decision in June or early July.

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Time’s up, borrowers. In March 2020, the federal government issued a leniency period where no federal student loans would be sent to collection, even if they were in default. Welp, times up, and the money is due. Now, the 5.3 million borrowers who are in default could see their wages garnished if they don't pay starting May 5, which could definitely put a damper on those Cinco de Mayo festivities. AP >

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that “American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” casting shade at Biden for his failed student debt relief initiative. Unfortunately, we’re still forced to serve as collateral for a chaotic new administration that’s effectively tanked the economy, so this couldn’t come at a worst time. Who’s most at risk? Older adults. In 2017, nearly 40 percent of federal borrowers over the age of 65 were in default on their student loans.

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The fight between the Trump administration and Harvard University is feeling like a reality show at this point – and honestly, one I’d watch! After the university publicized a government letter that asked for federal oversight of the campus, the administration decided it will pull another $1 billion of the school’s funding for health research, according to sources close to the team. Harvard filed a lawsuit Monday arguing this freeze is unconstitutional. WSJ >

The administration has already pulled $2.2B from the university, which makes me wonder: how much money do these schools actually have? Is this why Trump created a fake school back in the day, so he could go after this coin? And why did I speak at Harvard for free.99 back in 2017?! Jokes aside: shoutout to those leading this fight against the administration, which is shaping up to be a historic battle that will likely define how powerful institutions can fight back.

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The Environmental Protection Agency plans to fire or reassign more than 450 staffers working on environmental justice issues after budget cuts. These employees are being let go from the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and EPA regional offices, which seems like an effort to “play ball” with the anti-woke agenda. Axios >

The move will likely limit grant opportunities for state and regional environmental justice work, and could effectively end much of the EPA's work addressing pollution in marginalized communities.

🔥 Tell your representative not to repeal the Lead Out of Water Rule (called the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements) that will protect communities from toxic lead water pipes. Act now >

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Worried that Trump hasn’t done anything for the American people? You must have missed the executive order to “make America’s showers great again” and end the “Obama-Biden war on water pressure,” silly! The Trump administration has ordered the repeal of the 13,000-word regulation defining “showerhead.” This essentially frees us of the terrible burden implemented in 1994 (when Clinton, not Biden nor Obama, was president) dictating that anything defined as a showerhead must have a flow no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. The New Republic >

For context, the EPA estimates that showers account for nearly 17% of residential indoor water use. Implementing a low-flow showerhead policy was in hopes of saving nearly 1.2 trillion gallons of water used in the United States annually – a valuable preservation of resources in areas that are getting hotter and drier each year.

This decision itself might not have immediate consequences, but support from DOGE may. They’ve allegedly terminated the consulting contract that the Department of Energy uses to enforce regulations like this with manufacturers. If that’s true, then it could cause major issues beyond showerheads, but all appliances. Manufacturers will be able to create and produce whatever they want, with no safety or conservation standards. That could not just yield more more waste, but physical harm to consumers. Read this ProPublica article to learn more.

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You thought it couldn’t get worse. Hegseth said “hold my beer.” Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is allegedly shared war details in another Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer. The messages are said to include the same flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen that were shared in the other Signal chat with the journalist from The Atlantic. NPR >

“Panican: A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!” In the midst of tariff mayhem, Trump tweeted that the American people need to be patient while he tanked the economy. He called them Panicans, which seems to be a clumsy combination of “panic” and “American,” and not the best bedside manners when you’re leading the country through chaos. But I do love the idea of this political party. We can have a pelican for a mascot and call ourselves the Paninis for short. Think Panera would sponsor?

Bring home the bacon. After announcing Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador for Israel, Trump said "He's going to bring home the bacon, even though bacon isn't too big in Israel — had to clear that up." BBC >