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FEMA paid for hotels housing Tren de Aragua, Laken Riley killer, Noem says

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Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

From The Center Square

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Luxury hotels in New York City including the Roosevelt, recipients of $59 million from FEMA to house immigrants, were a base of operations for Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and served as a residence of the convicted killer of Laken Riley.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared the startling revelation Wednesday afternoon, just more than 48 hours after the Department of Government Efficiency team led by Elon Musk revealed the payments. She specifically said the Roosevelt Hotel was utilized by the notorious Venezuelan prison gang with members among the highest priority in thousands of arrests and detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“I have clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels,” Noem wrote on social media. “FEMA was funding the Roosevelt Hotel that serves as a Tren de Aragua base of operations and was used to house Laken Riley’s killer. Mark my words: there will not be a single penny spent that goes against the interest and safety of the American people.”

Riley, a University of Georgia nursing student, was murdered while out jogging. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was illegally in the country and subsequently found guilty in November 2024.

The murder became a rallying cry for conservatives and a central issue in Trump’s reelection campaign.

The bipartisan Laken Riley Act – authorizing law enforcement to detain people illegally in America arrested for committing theft, assaulting law enforcement, or causing serious injury or death to another person – was the first major bill the 47th president signed into law on Jan. 29.

In the wake of the Trump administration’s findings through DOGE, four federal workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were fired Tuesday. The embattled agency previously ran by Alejandro Mayorkas in the Biden administration is a major agency within Noem’s DHS.

Homeland Security, in an emailed statement to The Center Square on Tuesday, said the firings included FEMA’s chief financial officer, two program analysts, and a grant specialist.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people,” the DHS said in its email.

Tren de Aragua is designated a foreign terrorist organization.

According to ICE, the Tren de Aragua gang is known for engaging in various criminal activities such as drug trafficking and violent crimes – including murder. Multiple reports indicate its operation is nationwide, the volume in certain locales greater than in others.

A couple of the gang members were tied to assaults on New York Police Department officers in Times Square last year. The attack garnered national outrage after four of the Venezuelan migrants indicted in the attack were apprehended by federal law enforcement but were released without deportation.

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Trump threatens additional 50% tariffs on China, urges ‘patience’

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From The Center Square

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President Donald Trump threatened to ratchet up tariffs against China after China upped its own tariffs against the U.S. in response to the president’s tariffs policy announcement earlier this month.

The Chinese Communist Party raised its tariffs on U.S. goods to 34%, ignoring Trump’s warning not to retaliate, which does not include Chinese tariffs on specific U.S. goods like natural gas.

That 34% figure matches the additional tariffs the president put on China in his announcement of the new tariff policy on April 2, an announcement that brought overall tariffs against China to 54%.

Trump argues that tariffs are not the only way China takes advantage of the U.S.

“Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set,” Trump said in a statement online.

“Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” he continued.

“Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!” the president said. “Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately.”

Trump also urged Americans to be patient with his tariff policy as stocks continued to decline.

The president unveiled a sweeping set of reciprocal tariffs during a press conference earlier this month, and since that announcement the markets have seen sharp declines.

“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” Trump said on TruthSocial, his social media platform. “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”

Democratic and some Republican critics have blasted the president’s tariffs, a policy previously foreign to the Republican Party in modern politics.

Trump has admitted there will be some pain but argued that the tariffs will reinvigorate domestic manufacturing in the U.S. and raise revenue for the federal government. He also says the tariffs will help the U.S. negotiate better trade deals with other countries, many of which currently charge steep tariffs against the U.S.

Critics argue the tariffs will increase prices for Americans and hurt the economy and U.S. trading relationships.

Trump and his allies have argued the U.S. has been manipulated and taken advantage of in the previous tariff system, all while manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas. Now, they argue, much of our manufacturing is done by one of our greatest adversaries: China.

“Countries from all over the World are talking to us,” Trump said. “Tough but fair parameters are being set. Spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate! They have treated the U.S. very poorly on Trade. They don’t take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs. Likewise Agriculture, and many other ‘things.’ It all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has helped lead the charge of Republicans who oppose the president’s new trade policy.

“Politicians should pay attention to the millions of investors who are worried that widespread tariffs will lead to a recession,” Paul wrote on X Friday.

Trump’s comments suggest that he is doubling down, not backing off, of his new tariff policy, likely part of the reason markets continued to slide Monday. Trump pointed to other signs of economic health, and his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pointed out that the stock market is only one marker of the economy and one in which half of Americans have no stake.

“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place,” Trump said. “This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA!”

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The world is changing – Trump’s Tariffs, the US, Canada, and the rest of the world

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It’s a mistake to think that Canada and any team of trade allies we can muster will be able to force the US to back down from Trump’s tariffs. Certainly not in the short run.

The US is committed to tariffs.  They know it’s going to create hardships.  They know some businesses are going to fail.  They know some people are going to lose jobs.  They know products are going to cost more.  It’s not that they don’t care about hardships.  They are committing to see if they can withstand these hardships in order to reacquire a lot of the manufacturing jobs that left America over the last three or four decades.

And it’s not all about jobs either.  It’s also about critical industries that have vacated America. It makes no sense that the US would rely on China for pharmaceuticals and rare earth minerals.  Yet that situation is exactly where America finds itself in 2025.

If you’d like a deeper understanding of what is unfolding around the world, this podcast is an absolute ‘must’.

| The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 252

Why Conservatives Flipped to Supporting Trump’s Tariffs

Donald Trump is the only one telling the American economy, “You have cancer!”

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, says, “The treatment is going to be a little painful.” Kevin responds to criticisms that the Heritage Foundation has changed its position on tariffs, explains why the president’s treatment of Canada may be a “tactical error,” and says it’s time for tax cuts, deregulation, and to stop the “fuzzy math happening in Congress” and cut the budget.

They discuss nuclear energy, the Chinese Communist Party, the DOGE, and how the socialist president of Mexico “understands Trump.”

They both agree that we are experiencing the “second American revolution” and lauded the gutting of the Department of Education and the vision of JD Vance, while warning that “not everyone in Silicon Valley is our friend.”

In the end, they have to ask, is Donald Trump moving too fast?

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