Beware The Tariff Trap

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

Here’s what The Lever published this week:

Trump’s Trade War Is A Political Trap For Democrats. The president’s reckless tariffs are designed to goad his opponents into touting free trade and scoffing at the working class.

Trump IRS Pick Was Just Enriched By Tax Schemers. New documents show Billy Long’s $130,000 personal debt was suddenly paid off by donors at firms policed by the tax agency he’d lead.

Big Oil Is Following Big Gun’s Playbook. To protect themselves from liability, fossil fuel companies are taking inspiration from laws shielding gunmakers from lawsuits.

Trump Relaunches His Tariff Corruption Game. Trump fired a watchdog whose office warned about shady tariff exemption deals. Now, those exemptions are being handed out to donors.

Exxon Presses Supreme Court To Rescind Your Rights. Attorneys general bankrolled by the fossil fuel giant want the Supreme Court to stop Americans from suing polluters.

Biden’s Soft-On-Corporate-Crime Policy Paved The Way For Trump. Under Biden’s administration, the prosecution of white collar crime reached a record low. Now, it’s headed for rock bottom.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s Very Expensive Day In Court. Meta’s CEO was flanked by a cabal of $2,000-an-hour attorneys as he testified in the company’s federal antitrust trial.

Zuckerberg Admits Enshittification Is The Point. The tech CEO confirmed what we already know: Big Tech is deliberately worsening users’ online experience.

Defunding The Big Tech Police. The Trump administration has ordered antitrust prosecutors to shut down their San Francisco field office as the president’s Silicon Valley allies seek to avoid regulation.

TAX REVOLT, Part One: The Man Who Started The War On Taxes. The leader of California’s tax revolt launched a populist revolution to limit his state’s property taxes. The movement evolved beyond his wildest dreams.

Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:

⛽ Oil by any other name. Former Biden administration Energy Department officials are now working for firms tied to the fossil fuel and utility interests that lobbied them while they shaped American energy policy. Brad Crabtree, who served as head of the Department of Energy’s fossil fuel office under President Biden, confirmed he started a new gig at Exxon this week. Meanwhile, Sludge reports that Biden’s Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, is also booked and busy working on behalf of the utilities industry — she recently joined the board of California electricity provider Edison International and took a senior counselor job at DGA Group, a global advisory firm serving oil and gas clients.

🧟 Trump’s “Death File” scam could be his undoing. You read that right — the Trump administration is reportedly purposely adding the names of immigrants it knows to be alive to the Social Security Administration’s “Death Master File” to try to force them out of the country. The Death Master File, which is the list of beneficiaries for whom the SSA has received a death benefit claim, is often referenced by creditors and can affect individuals’ access to employment, loans, and even housing. According to the academic blog Credit Slips, this means Trump is committing multiple violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act — making his administration a likely target for both private and public civil suits. We’ll be waiting.

💃 Festival now, suffer later. More than 60 percent of concertgoers to this year’s Coachella arts and music festival used a “buy now, pay later” plan to purchase their tickets, Billboard reports. A majority of the festival’s nearly 100,000 general admission attendees chose a payment plan that charges them a $41 fee for a $50 deposit on weekend passes, which retail for $599. Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck are increasingly relying on the burgeoning and scantly regulated buy now, pay later industry to fund their everyday lives.

Every week, our paid subscribers receive a newsletter full of policy wins, environmental victories, social initiatives improving your life, and more. 

A taste of this week’s good news:

• The Lever cometh for Trump’s taxman.
• The Google-opoly could come crumbling down.
• A teachers’ union notches a massive win.
• Attorneys general stand up to Trump’s intimidation.
• A judge cracks down on an immigration crackdown.

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Join supporters like Sarah Smith, who had this to say about becoming a Lever Leader: 

“In a world of increasing disinformation, for-profit motives, and corruption, The Lever feels like one of the few reliable, legitimate news outlets left.”

• New York Times Dealbook — The newsletter, which curates the day’s top business news, featured our reporting on Trump IRS nominee Billy Long’s financial connections.
• Politico — The political news outlet credited The Lever with breaking the story of Billy Long’s controversial campaign donations.
• Politico — The Influence newsletter, which chronicles politicians’ activity in Washington, D.C., featured our reporting on Billy Long.
• The New Republic — The magazine highlighted our breaking reporting on Billy Long.
• The Guardian — The newspaper referenced our coverage of Billy Long in its report on how Trump had just fired another interim IRS chief. 
• Rolling Stone — The magazine noted our Billy Long reporting.
• Political Wire — The magazine referenced our story on Billy Long’s financial connections.
• Election Law Blog — The site, which covers the politics of law, republished our breaking story on Billy Long.
• The Nation — The magazine referenced David Sirota’s interview with the UAW’s Shawn Fain in an article about tariffs and labor.
• Middle East Eye — The site referenced our reporting on private prisons profiting from the immigration detention and surveillance boom.
• Fast Politics — David Sirota appeared on the irreverent political show to discuss how Democrats can win Trump’s tariff game.