In other news, the economy added just 103,000 jobs in March according to the Labor Department, far fewer than expected
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped by over 600 points this afternoon because of Trump's latest tariff temper tantrum. The market closed down by 570 points at 4 pm.
Finally, Buzzfeed obtained messages between Julian Assange at Gufficer 2.0 that show Assange was privately soliciting emails from the Russian hackers while publicly claiming he received them from murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich. That was deliberate misinformation.
As usual, there was a lot of news this week and I can't cover everything. Here are some stories I didn't get to:
Pajama enthusiast and sexual harasser Rep. Blake Farenthold has resigned from Congress.
Puerto Rico is reportedly going to close over 230 schools because enrollment has dropped by over 38,000 and they can't afford to keep them open.
Over 200 former diplomats have signed a letter to the Senate asking them to pressure Mike Pompeo to reverse the cuts Rex Tillerson made at the State Department.
British officials believe at least 2,800 Russian social media accounts were used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories after Sergei Skripal was poisoned.
Moody's Analytics says Trump's trade war could cost up to 190,000 jobs even before tariffs are fully implemented because it's already cutting market value.
The travel industry is expecting to take another big hit from Trump's trade war to go along with the hit they've already taken from his Muslim ban.
Peter Navarro is a fucking imbecile.
"Everybody needs to relax," Navarro told CNBC. Trump's trade policy is "good for the market," he insisted, adding: "I teach that stuff. I mean, let's remember – if anybody knows what goes wrong with these models, it's the guy who knows how to teach them."
Former officials tell the Daily Beast that our Kurdish allies in Syria are going to start preparing for Trump's withdrawal because they'd be crazy not to. They're also preparing to fight Turkey, Russia, and Iran if necessary.
Now, this might be the most important story anyone will read this week. I wanted to write a post about it but, honestly, it's way too big for that. You should read the whole thing for yourself. The New Yorker has a long profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his rise to power, his goals, and the ways Trump has enabled him. It's a terrifying story if only because Trump has no idea what he's doing. Everyone is playing with matches and no one knows what's going to happen next. There's no way you can read this and not come away thinking Trump and Jared Kushner are tools.
Have a good weekend.