Trump Turns to Migrant Workers Amid Farm Labor Crisis

Donald Trump’s solution to the farmworker shortage caused by his violent mass deportation campaign is to embrace migrant labor.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is making it cheaper to hire migrant farmworkers on temporary visas under the H-2A program. It’s a blatant admission that the White House’s promise that deporting more immigrants would help American workers with better wages and lower unemployment was a farce.

“The farm economy is in a difficult situation, and President Trump is utilizing all the tools available to ensure farmers have what they need to be successful,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Under the new policy, hourly rates for workers on H-2A visas have been lowered by $1–$7 depending on the state, with farmers now being allowed to calculate housing as part of the workers’ compensation. With this dramatic reduction in workers’ pay, the United Farm Workers of America, a union representing thousands of workers across the country, has filed a lawsuit claiming that American farmworkers will be pushed out while earning a lot less.

“These actions are going to displace domestic farmworkers who have been working in the fields and putting food on dinner tables for decades, and bring a work force that is even more vulnerable to abuse,” Teresa Romero, the union’s president, told the Times. She noted that exploitation and trafficking is already a problem for many migrant workers.

Anti-immigration organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies are also against the move, with Mark Krikorian, the group’s executive director, writing in November that such changes would encourage more immigration and reduce automation.

The Trump administration seems to be hoping its supporters, other than farmers struggling for labor, won’t notice this and will continue to think the White House is carrying out its deportation agenda, which is otherwise so extreme it has been compared to ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile, its own myths about deportations helping the economy are unraveling.

Germany has rejected President Trump’s request for them to join his war on Iran while the United States flounders in controlling the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot?” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday. “This is not our war, and we didn’t start it.”

“Neither the United States nor Israel consulted us before the war, and ... Washington explicitly stated at the outset ​of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired,” German spokesperson Stefan Kornelius added.

Germany is the latest Western ally to rebuke Trump as he struggles to rein in surging oil prices caused by Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the strait. French President Emmanuel Macron told Trump the French Navy would only get involved after the situation calms, and U.K., Polish, and Spanish leaders have completely rebuked the president.

Germany’s reaction, along with those of various other European countries, underscores just how little support Trump’s war has with longtime U.S. allies—and understandably so. The Trump administration has spent over a year demeaning, attacking, and demanding more of European leaders. Begging them to cobble together some kind of “save the oil” coalition at the last minute seems like a Hail Mary in every sense.

Kristi Noem’s lies are finally catching up with her.

The Department of Justice on Monday received a recommendation to investigate the outgoing secretary for allegedly committing perjury while testifying under oath earlier this month, Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats announced on X.

The recommendation, first reported by former CBS journalist Scott MacFarlane, comes from Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, who are the ranking members on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, respectively.

The recommendation cites at least four responses Noem provided under oath, including her answers to questions about the $220 million ad campaign that reportedly got her fired. Speaking before the committees, Noem had crumbled under scrutiny regarding the multimillion-dollar ad contract she’d awarded to an eight-day-old company.

While testifying under oath, Noem claimed that Donald Trump had signed off on the campaign. The president later claimed he “never knew anything about it.”

Noem may have misled lawmakers about the process for awarding contracts, claiming there was open bidding while she really only allowed a few companies to pitch and passing federal funds to companies with ties to her inner circle. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Peter Welch have launched an investigation into the ad campaign.

The recommendation will also urge a probe of Noem’s statements about ICE satisfying detention standards for detainees, the treatment of U.S. citizens, and violating court orders.

Speaking under oath, Noem claimed that the Department of Homeland Security does not detain American citizens. This is not true. By October, DHS had detained at least 170 American citizens, including 20 children.

Noem also claimed that DHS had complied with court orders, while federal judges across the country have found that DHS has violated dozens of orders involving immigrants challenging the legal basis for their detention.

It’s not clear that the Department of Justice, led by Pam Bondi, will pursue an investigation against Noem. “Any claim that Secretary Noem committed perjury is categorically false,” a DHS official told MacFarlane.

Committee Democrats acknowledge it might take a while to see movement. “We have low expectations that Pam Bondi’s partisan Justice Department will pursue a perjury investigation into Kristi Noem,” they wrote on X. “Unfortunately for her, the statute of limitations is five years. This case can be pursued by the next Administration.”

This story has been updated.

Despite appointing hundreds of judges, Donald Trump suddenly feels that the nation’s judiciary is out to get him.

The president blatantly attacked the third branch of government over the weekend, venting over the span of several lengthy Truth Social posts about the various judicial decisions that overruled his unconstitutional policies. Trump was apparently irate that the governmental branch had not unequivocally yielded to his personal interests.

“The Courts treat Republicans, and me, so unfairly, always seeming to protect those who should not be protected,” Trump wrote. “They are highly politicized. Cases don’t matter, the Judge does!”

“The decision that mattered most to me was TARIFFS!” Trump argued in another post. “The Court knew where I stood, how badly I wanted this Victory for our Country, and instead decided to, potentially, give away Trillions of Dollars to Countries and Companies who have been taking advantage of the United States for decades.”

The ultraconservative Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff plan was beyond the power of his office, effectively dismantling the president’s foreign and economic agendas in one fell swoop. In his post, Trump name-dropped three members of the court—Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh—specifically thanking them for dissenting against the decision, in which two of Trump’s own appointees (Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch) sided in favor.

“The Democrats on the Court always ‘stick together,’ no matter how strong a case is put before them—There is rarely even a minor ‘waver,’” Trump continued. “But Republicans do not do this. They openly disrespect the Presidents who nominate them to the highest position in the Land, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and go out of their way, with bad and wrongful rulings and intentions, to prove how ‘honest,’ ‘independent,’ and ‘legitimate’ they are.”

He further referred to the Supreme Court as a “weaponized and unjust Political Organization” that has “ransacked” the country.

Trump also attacked the federal judge who dismantled the Justice Department’s case against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, claiming that Judge James Boasberg is “Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control,” and suffering from “the highest level of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

In a scathing 27-page opinion Friday, Boasberg said that the government had produced “essentially zero evidence” to substantiate its criminal case against Powell, citing Trump’s own tweets as evidence that the case to undermine Powell’s authority was politically motivated.

Trump has had some 267 judges confirmed by the Senate over the span of his two administrations, including three Supreme Court justices—more than any other president since Richard Nixon.

Donald Trump is accusing media outlets of committing treason over their Iran war coverage.

On Truth Social Sunday, Trump made a long-winded post accusing Iran of using AI to create fake videos of attacks on U.S. ships and American publications of “false reporting,” calling out The Wall Street Journal by name. In one instance, he cited a fake video of the USS Abraham Lincoln “burning uncontrollably in the ocean.”

“Not only was it not burning, it was not even shot at—Iran knows better than to do that! The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!” Trump ranted. “The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets. The Radical Leftwing Press knows this full well, but continues to go forward with false stories and LIES.”

Trump went on to praise Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr for threatening “the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.” Carr on Saturday threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of local outlets that he determined to be sharing “fake” news.

The president has long attacked media outlets for even the slightest bit of critical coverage against him, but the weaponization of the FCC in his second term adds cause for concern with this post. Under Carr’s tenure, the FCC has attacked multiple TV networks, including NBC, ABC, and CBS, citing various excuses, including DEI and new interpretations of existing statutes.

Trump officials, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, are also lashing out at the media, openly gloating as right-wing ownership gets closer to running CNN. As Trump’s war with Iran continues to go poorly, he will continue to lash out at anyone who points out the obvious. Will this come with an attempt to censor the press?