“The construction industry needs to attract 439,000 new workers this year to meet demand, otherwise costs will rise — putting some projects out of reach — per projections from the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group out Friday morning.”
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“Immigrants make up about 26% of the construction workforce, per census data cited by Pew Research Center last fall.”
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“An estimated 13% of construction workers are undocumented”
‘Trump is post-literate, meaning he can use social media, but doesn’t read books. He doesn’t understand the origin, history, and nature of the Western alliance because he hasn’t taken the time to understand it. That would require reading.’
Trump doesn’t understand complex global supply chains.
““I’ve been talking about it for 40 years, because I saw what was happening,” he said, referencing old interviews from when he was “young, very handsome.”
“I’d be talking about how we were being ripped off by these countries,” he continued. “I mean, nothing changes very much. The only thing to change was the countries, but nothing really changes.””
“President Donald Trump has fired several White House National Security Council officials after he was urged by far-right activist Laura Loomer to purge staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his “Make America Great Again” agenda, several people familiar with the matter said Thursday.”
“A third major law firm has reached an agreement with the Trump administration to escape a punishing executive order that would cost it government business.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, which has more than 1,200 attorneys, will provide at least $100 million in legal services to causes favored by the White House and end diversity programs under terms of a deal President Donald Trump announced Tuesday on social media.”
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“Trump has deployed executive orders and memos to punish law firms he views as adversaries. Among them are longtime Democratic Party partner Perkins Coie and Covington and Burling — which provided legal services to former special counsel Jack Smith.
Several firms, including Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, have fought back against Trump’s punishing orders, suing to block the orders.”
“In recent weeks, two large law firms reached settlements with the Trump administration that stunned the legal profession — the first with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which pledged to commit $40 million in free legal work “to support the Administration’s initiatives,” and the second with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which upped the ante to a $100 million commitment. The deals allowed the firms to avoid sanctions imposed by Trump’s executive orders, including revocations of government security clearances held by the firms’ lawyers and prohibitions on entering federal buildings.”
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“You can attribute the two deals mostly to the fact that what Trump is doing — using the power of the presidency to target law firms that he personally dislikes — is legitimately unprecedented. The full scope of the consequences from Trump’s orders are far from clear, and large law firms are temperamentally conservative by nature. Faced with such uncertainty, surrender becomes an option.
The bottom line is that large law firms exist to make money — ideally lots of it — and they are generally not paragons of virtue, principle or self-sacrifice.”
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“it is a crime under federal law for public officials to engage in extortion, and the Justice Department’s public guidance explains that the theory has been used against public officials “serving on the federal, state and local levels.”
Trump is not the direct beneficiary of the pro bono work agreed to by the firms, but the DOJ guidance explains that the law applies even if the “corrupt payment went to a third party.” Moreover, a person or company can be liable under the law if they are “truly the instigator of the transaction,” so both sides of these deals could conceivably be held accountable.
You could make similar arguments under federal bribery law — the line between bribery and extortion is often hard to parse in particular fact patterns — but of course, the Justice Department is not going to do anything about it, and Trump enjoys broad criminal immunity even after he leaves office. In theory, the law firms are at greater risk — a Justice Department in a new administration could always take an interest — but that seems highly unlikely.”
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“two effects are conceivable, at least at the margins. The first is that law firms will be less willing to take on political clients. The second is that law firms may prove less willing to hire former government lawyers involved in politically controversial cases — or even lawyers who they think may go on to do that sort of work.
More broadly, law firms may pull back on supporting pro bono work that could be controversial with the Trump administration or the Republican Party, including immigration-related cases.”
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” In a democratic society, lawyers should not have to worry about whether the government will punish them for having clients or colleagues who are somehow associated with the political opposition. Likewise, private parties should be free to choose their own lawyers without having to worry that the government will be biased against their attorneys or will hamper their work for improper reasons.”
“President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will impose a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries in the coming days, with a higher tariff on dozens of other countries the United States believes have the most unfair trade relationships with the U.S.”
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“The tariffs that Trump detailed Wednesday mark the most significant U.S. protectionist trade action since the 1930s, when Congress imposed tariffs on more than 20,000 goods and dug the U.S. economy deeper into the Great Depression.”
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“The new duties include a 34 percent tariff on China, 26 percent on India, 25 percent on South Korea, 24 percent on Japan and 20 percent on the 27-nation European Union, whose largest members are Germany and France.
The administration also slapped a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam and a 49 percent tariff on Cambodia — a blow to China, which has shipped goods through those and other countries to effectively skirt previous rounds of U.S. tariffs imposed over the past seven years.
That comes on top of a second executive order Trump signed Wednesday eliminating the “de minimis loophole” for small-dollar packages worth under $800 from China and Taiwan, starting on May 2. The loophole has been used by Chinese companies like SHEIN and Temu to deliver billions in goods to the U.S.”
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“economists warn that the tariffs are almost certain to drive up prices for everyday goods imported from abroad — from fruits, vegetables and other food products to clothing, toys, cell phones, laptops, sporting equipment and countless other consumer products. The tariffs also will hit machinery and other manufactured goods, along with the raw materials and parts used to make things like cars and build houses in the United States.”
“Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will impose “carefully calibrated and targeted counter tariffs” on the United States in response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Carney said Canada will counter with 25 percent tariffs on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and on the non-Canadian content of USMCA-compliant vehicles from the United States.
But Carney said that unlike Trump’s tariffs, Canada’s countermeasures will not affect auto parts “because we know the benefits of our integrated production system.” All other previously announced Canadian countermeasures to Trump’s previous threats will remain, Carney said.
Carney said Trump’s global reciprocal tariffs have ended 80 years of American global economic leadership that started after World War II.”