Day 1548: "Do your job."

1/ A federal judge said he found “probable cause” to hold the Trump administration “in criminal contempt” for its “willful disregard” of his order directing officials to turn around planes carrying deportees to an El Salvador prison. “The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” Judge James Boasberg said, giving the White House until April 23 to respond. The Trump administration claimed the migrants were already airborne and later cited “state secrets” to avoid giving details. Boasberg dismissed the excuses, writing that “Every judicial order must be obeyed — no matter how ‘erroneous’ it ‘may be.’” (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / Politico / NPR / NBC News / USA Today / Reuters / Axios / CNN)

2/ The Justice Department will appeal a federal judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to help return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man “mistakenly” deported to El Salvador despite a court order protecting him. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis accused officials of ignoring a Supreme Court directive and ordered them to testify, citing “no effort” to secure his release. Meanwhile, Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador, but was blocked from visiting or speaking with Abrego Garcia, who remains in a mega-prison holding U.S. deportees. And, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele plans to double the prison’s capacity to detain more alleged gang members deported from the U.S. as part of a deal that includes $6 million in U.S. funding. (ABC News / The Hill / NBC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

3/ Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs are “significantly larger than anticipated” and “highly likely” to drive up inflation while slowing growth. “It’s a difficult place for a central bank to be,” Powell said, as the market sank and the Fed signaled it would hold rates steady. Despite Trump’s claim that tariffs generate $2 billion a day, U.S. Customs say the real figure is closer to $250 million. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization warned the trade war could trigger the steepest collapse in global trade since the pandemic. Powell admitted, “We may find ourselves in the challenging scenario in which our dual-mandate goals are in tension.” (Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / Axios / Washington Post / New York Times / ABC News / CNBC / Bloomberg / Reuters)

4/ California sued to block Trump’s tariffs, calling them illegal and economically destructive. Gov. Gavin Newsom and AG Rob Bonta argued that Trump overstepped by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act – a law that “doesn’t even mention tariffs” – to impose sweeping import taxes without Congress. “The president can’t do unlawful things,” Bonta said, while Newsom added: “No state is poised to lose more than California,” citing billions in trade losses and rising prices across agriculture, tech, and construction. “Where the hell is Congress?” Newsom asked. “Do your job.” (Politico / USA Today / The Hill / NBC News / Axios / Washington Post)

5/ The White House eliminated the wire service spot from the press pool, effectively sidelining The Associated Press after losing a federal case over “viewpoint discrimination.” The Trump administration claimed the new rules, which lump AP, Reuters, and Bloomberg into a broader pool rotation, would “treat all outlets equally.” The changes comes after a federal judge ruled the administration violated the First Amendment by punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico. “The AP cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services,” the judge wrote. (CNN / Bloomberg / CBS News / Politico)

6/ The Trump administration will ask Congress to rescind $1.1 billion in funds for NPR and PBS. The White House claimed the move is in response to “radical, woke propaganda” and that taxpayers should no longer “subsidize intolerance of non-leftist viewpoints.” If approved, the cuts would eliminate nearly all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, threatening hundreds of local stations, especially in rural areas. The White House will formally submit the package when Congress returns April 28, triggering a 45-day clock for lawmakers to act. (New York Times / Bloomberg / The Hill / Politico / NPR)

The midterm elections are in 566 days.

✏️ Notables.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio shut down the State Department’s only office dedicated to tracking foreign disinformation, eliminating the 40-person team and suspending all operations. The office had monitored propaganda from China, Russia, Iran, and terrorist networks. Rubio, without evidence, accused the office of spending “millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans.” (MIT Technology Review / Politico / New York Times)

• Republicans in North Carolina are trying to overturn a certified state Supreme Court election result, targeting thousands of legally cast ballots after their candidate lost by 734 votes. Republican Jefferson Griffin challenged votes from four Democratic counties, focusing on overseas and military ballots and voters with incomplete registration data. Last week, the state Supreme Court ruled that about 5,000 overseas and military voters must prove their identity within 30 days or risk disenfranchisement. (Democracy Docket / Rolling Stone / New Republic)

• The Justice Department sued Maine over its refusal to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maine violated Title IX and warned, “It’s going to stop in every single state.” The lawsuit follows Trump’s February executive order that threatened to cut federal education funding to states allowing transgender girls in women’s competitions. Maine Gov. Janet Mills called the lawsuit “a campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution.” Federal courts have already blocked some attempts by the administration to withhold funds. (NPR / Associated Press / Reuters / USA Today / Washington Post)

• The CDC reported that 1 in 31 American 8-year-olds had autism in 2022, attributing the rise to improved screening — not a spike in actual cases. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nevertheless, immediately dismissed the agency’s findings, calling autism a “preventable” “epidemic” due to vague “environmental toxins,” despite decades of research disproving the claim. “Genes do not cause epidemics,” Kennedy claimed, vowing to identify the cause by September using studies led by a discredited vaccine skeptic. (Washington Post / New York Times / Axios / Politico / NBC News)