International
RFK Jr tells EWTN: Politicization of the CIA, FBI, Secret Service under Biden is ‘very troubling’

From LifeSiteNews
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with Raymond Arroyo that he is the only presidential candidate who has ever been denied Secret Service protection upon request.
In an exclusive Thursday interview with EWTN anchor Raymond Arroyo, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed the “politicization” of the U.S. government under Joe Biden as “very, very troubling,” pointing out that this has involved unprecedented violations of the constitution.
“The liberal media are sanctioning and condoning the politicization of the CIA, the FBI, the IRS, and now the Secret Service by President Biden,” Kennedy told Arroyo. “I think it’s very, very troubling for our Republic that these agencies are now being turned into political instruments by the president in power.
As evidence of this, Kennedy told how he is the “first presidential candidate in history” that has requested Secret Service protection and “been denied,” noting that there have been 44 candidates who “have been given protection prior to the 120-day mandate,” referring to the law requiring that major presidential candidates be given Secret Service protection within 120 days of a general election.
Arroyo called this “mind-boggling” considering his family history, alluding to the assassinations of his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and his father, and Robert F. Kennedy.
Kennedy suspects that the refusal of protection is the Biden administration’s way of forcing him to spend his own money on security so that he has less funds to devote to his presidential campaign.
He told Arroyo he has had four break-ins at his house since he announced he is running for president, but he remains undeterred in his bid for the presidency, now as an Independent.
While Kennedy believes Donald Trump is threat to the country, he noted to Arroyo that he recently said he “could make the argument that President Biden was just as much a danger to the Republic as President Trump.” In fact, Kennedy said in an interview earlier this month that Biden is arguably “a much worse threat to democracy,” citing his censorship of his political opponents.
“President Biden is the first president in history to censor his political opponents,” Kennedy told Arroyo, noting that he has thus far won a case in a federal district court that was upheld by the federal court of appeals that “found exactly that.”
“Exactly 37 hours after he took oath of office, President Biden’s White House began ordering the social media sites to remove me, remove my platforms from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter … ”
“In our country, we passed the first amendment of the constitution specifically to stop government officials from silencing their opponents. Because we know … that it is the beginning of a slippery slope that gives them license for any kind of atrocity,” Kennedy told Arroyo.
In fact, the Biden administration has not only censored but targeted and prosecuted its political opponents as well as citizens who have opposed the apparent “sacred cows” of the administration.
For example, Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered federal authorities in October 2021 to be ready to prosecute citizens, including concerned parents, who spoke out at school board meetings against COVID regulations and the framing of sexual and race discussion in classrooms.
Multiple FBI offices also labeled traditional Latin Mass Catholics as potential extremists, citing an Atlantic article about the Rosary being a weapon as well as the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Moving on to the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Kennedy shared nuanced views that recognize injustices committed by both Hamas and the state of Israel. He referred to himself as “extremely pro-Palestinian,” and believes they “have a right to their own state.”
However, he also does not “see that Israel has any choice but to eradicate Hamas,” adding that he doesn’t conflate Hamas, “an agent of Iran,” with the Palestinian people.
“Hamas is a kleptocracy — it steals money,” said Kennedy, going on to explain that the leaders of Hamas are billionaires. “They are stealing international aid funding which is meant to help the Palestinian people, and the money they don’t steal, they’re using to build underground tunnels, rather than schools” and useful infrastructure.
Hamas has stated that they do not want land, peace, or negotiations, but only one thing — “the eradication of Israel,” said Kennedy, who shared that he has read their “covenant,” which “specifically says any negotiation with Israel is a violation of Islamic law.”
“When you say ceasefire, what are you talking about? Because Hamas doesn’t want to stop firing these rockets.”
Kennedy stressed that he considers himself “anti-war,” and that he believes World War II is the only “moral” war the U.S. has participated in over the past century.
Abortion
Kennedy reiterated his support for abortion, the killing of unborn children, when asked to address the topic. He repeated the refrain of pro-abortion advocates to Arroyo, telling him that women “ought to have bodily autonomy” and that the government should not be interfering with that, failing to address the fact that a separate human life is at stake in abortion.
“I don’t feel that I’m doctrinaire on either side … I want to find a common ground where Americans can agree on it,” Kennedy said.
Calling abortion a “tragedy” and each one a “trauma,” Kennedy said he would “like to maximize choice but also minimize the number of abortions every year,” at least in part by subsidizing daycare, using money that would be made available by ending U.S. involvement in the Ukraine war.
When Arroyo pushed back on the idea that subsidized daycare would make a difference for mothers who have abortions because having a baby “would be too radical a change in their life,” Kennedy suggested another solution.
“I think we also need to have the best adoption system … and adoption placement systems in the world so people have that option as well. And I think we need to give people every option that they can to bring the baby to term, but not force them. Give them every option, so that it becomes attractive to them,” Kennedy said.
When confronted about whether he supports the Biden administration’s decision to make abortion pills available at every pharmacy, Kennedy eventually admitted that he would not reverse this decision but qualified that he is “worried about every pharmaceutical drug.”
He shared that Peter C. Gøtzsche, “one of the most influential epidemiologists on the planet,” “published a study this week that showed that pharmaceutical drugs are now the primary cause of death in our country.”
“Violence, the mental illness, the suicide, the homicide … these can all be an impact of pharmaceutical drugs … and we know almost nothing about them. Why? Because the pharma industry controls the NIH, CDC, and FDA.”
As with other drugs, Kennedy believes that “everyone should know the side effects (and) the risks of the abortion pill, so that everyone has “an informed choice.”
Kennedy also told Arroyo during their interview that he is opposed to the Biden administration’s new interpretation of Title IX — written by his uncle — according to which gender-confused men can participate in women’s sports.
“I don’t believe that people who are born men ought to be able to participate in consequential sports … against women,” said Kennedy, adding that he is proud of his uncle’s achievement in helping women’s sports to acquire rights equal to men’s sports.
‘Spiritual realignment’
Kennedy shared with Arroyo that while the Catholic faith was the “centerpiece” of his life growing up, he became distant from God during a 13-year period after his father’s assassination when he became addicted to drugs.
“During that period of time, I wouldn’t say I lost my faith, but when you’re living against conscience, which you have to do if you’re addicted to drugs, you push God out over the periphery of your horizon,” Kennedy said. “So the concept of God was, although it never was erased from me, it was just a distant concept that was not part of my day-to-day life.”
According to Kennedy, his recovery “involved a profound spiritual realignment” that has been the center of his life ever since.
While he lost his compulsion to use drugs at that point, he noted, “you can’t live off the laurels of a spiritual awakening. You have to renew it every day, and you renew it through service to other people.”
In response to questions from Arroyo, Kennedy shared that he prays “pretty much all day,” and that his faith keeps him “peaceful” even when he is attacked from all sides for his views and his presidential run, even by family.
“I think of it as like being on the ocean during (a) storm when there’s a tremendous amount of turbulence on the surface, but it allows me to sink below the surface and be in the stillness. There’s the confidence that all of that is an illusion, it’s a distraction,” Kennedy said.
“All of the figures that I admire … went through a period of rejection in their lives. Rejection by their families, rejection by their friends … being pariahs within their communities. In many ways, their achievements were meaningful because of that social disdain that they experienced during parts of their life.”
Energy
Trump Takes More Action To Get Government Out Of LNG’s Way

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By David Blackmon
The Trump administration moved this week to eliminate another Biden-era artificial roadblock to energy infrastructure development which is both unneeded and counterproductive to U.S. energy security.
In April 2023, Biden’s Department of Energy, under the hyper-politicized leadership of Secretary Jennifer Granholm, implemented a new policy requiring LNG projects to begin exports within seven years of receiving federal approval. Granholm somewhat hilariously claimed the policy was aimed at ensuring timely development and aligning with climate goals by preventing indefinite delays in energy projects that could impact emissions targets.
This claim was rendered incredibly specious just 8 months later, when Granholm aligned with then-President Joe Biden’s “pause” in permitting for new LNG projects due to absurd fears such exports might actually create higher emissions than coal-fired power plants. The draft study that served as the basis for the pause was thoroughly debunked within a few months, yet Granholm and the White House steadfastly maintained their ruse for a full year until Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 and reversed Biden’s order.
Certainly, any company involved in the development of a major LNG export project wants to proceed to first cargoes as expeditiously as possible. After all, the sooner a project starts generating revenues, the more rapid the payout becomes, and the higher the returns on investments. That’s the whole goal of entering this high-growth industry. Just as obviously, unforeseen delays in the development process can lead to big cost overruns that are the bane of any major infrastructure project.
On the other hand, these are highly complex, capital-intensive projects that are subject to all sorts of delay factors. As developers experienced in recent years, disruptions in supply chains caused by factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in major delays and cost overruns in projects in every facet of the economy.
Developers in the LNG industry have argued that this arbitrary timeline was too restrictive, citing these and other factors that can extend beyond seven years. Trump, responding to these concerns and his campaign promises to bolster American energy dominance, moved swiftly to eliminate this requirement. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the U.S. was set to rescind this policy, freeing LNG projects from the rigid timeline and potentially accelerating their completion.
This policy reversal could signal a broader approach to infrastructure under Trump. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, enacted in 2021, allocated $1.2 trillion to rebuild roads, bridges, broadband and other critical systems, with funds intended to be awarded over five years, though some projects naturally extend beyond that due to construction timelines. The seven-year LNG deadline was a specific energy-related constraint, but Trump’s administration has shown a willingness to pause or redirect Biden-era infrastructure funding more generally. For instance, Trump’s Jan.20 executive order, “Unleashing American Energy,” directed agencies to halt disbursements under the IIJA and IRA pending a 90-day review, raising questions about whether similar time-bound restrictions across infrastructure sectors might also be loosened or eliminated.
Critics argue that scrapping deadlines risks stalling projects indefinitely, undermining the urgency Biden sought to instill in modernizing U.S. infrastructure. Supporters argue that developers already have every profit-motivated incentive to proceed as rapidly as possible and see the elimination of this restriction as a pragmatic adjustment, allowing flexibility for states and private entities to navigate permitting, labor shortages and supply chain issues—challenges that have persisted into 2025.
For example, the $294 billion in unawarded IIJA funds, including $87.2 billion in competitive grants, now fall under Trump’s purview, and his more energy-focused administration could prioritize projects aligned with his energy and economic goals over Biden’s climate and DEI-focused initiatives.
Ultimately, Trump’s decision to end the seven-year LNG deadline exemplifies his intent to reshape infrastructure policy by prioritizing speed, flexibility and industry needs. Whether this extends formally to all U.S. infrastructure projects remains unclear, but seems likely given the Trump White House’s stated objectives and priorities.
This move also clearly aligns with the overall Trump philosophy of getting the government out of the way, allowing the markets to work and freeing the business community to restore American Energy Dominance in the most expeditious way possible.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
Automotive
Auto giant shuts down foreign plants as Trump moves to protect U.S. industry

MxM News
Quick Hit:
Stellantis is pausing vehicle production at two North American facilities—one in Canada and another in Mexico—following President Donald Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars. The move marks one of the first corporate responses to the administration’s push to bring back American manufacturing.
Key Details:
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In an email to workers Thursday, Stellantis North America chief Antonio Filosa directly tied the production pause to the new tariffs, writing that the company is “continuing to assess the medium- and long-term effects” but is “temporarily pausing production” at select assembly plants outside the U.S.
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Production at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario will be paused for two weeks, while the Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico will be offline for the entire month of April.
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These plants produce the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, the new Dodge Charger Daytona EV, the Jeep Compass SUV, and the Jeep Wagoneer S EV.
Diving Deeper:
On Wednesday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump announced sweeping new tariffs aimed at revitalizing America’s auto manufacturing industry. The 25% tariffs on all imported cars are part of a broader “reciprocal tariffs” strategy, which Trump described as ending decades of globalist trade policies that hollowed out U.S. industry.
Just a day later, Stellantis became the first major automaker to act on the new policy, halting production at two of its international plants. According to an internal email obtained by CNBC, Stellantis North American COO Antonio Filosa said the company is “taking immediate actions” to respond to the tariff policy while continuing to evaluate the broader impact.
“These actions will impact some employees at several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations,” Filosa wrote.
The Windsor, Ontario plant, which builds the Chrysler Pacifica and the newly introduced Dodge Charger Daytona EV, will shut down for two weeks. The Toluca facility in Mexico, responsible for the Jeep Compass and Jeep Wagoneer S EV, will suspend operations for the entire month of April.
The move comes as Stellantis continues to face scrutiny for its reliance on low-wage labor in foreign markets. As reported by Breitbart News, the company has spent years shifting production and engineering jobs to countries like Brazil, India, Morocco, and Mexico—often at the expense of American workers. Last year alone, Stellantis cut around 400 U.S.-based engineering positions while ramping up operations overseas.
Meanwhile, General Motors appears to be responding differently. According to Reuters, GM told employees in a webcast Thursday that it will increase production of light-duty trucks at its Fort Wayne, Indiana plant—where it builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. These models are also assembled in Mexico and Canada, but GM’s decision suggests a shift in production to the U.S. could be underway in light of the tariffs.
As Trump’s trade reset takes effect, more automakers are expected to recalibrate their production strategies—potentially signaling a long-awaited shift away from offshoring and toward rebuilding American industry.
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