TRAVEL SHAM

Donald Trump enacted a new travel ban. It’s causing dismay around the world… and a lot of head scratching.

• While the world’s richest magic mushroom user feuded with the world’s most powerful McDonald’s superfan yesterday, many people around the world were trying to make sense of another brewing battle: President Donald Trump’s new travel ban. It targets 19 countries — from Haiti to Iran to Sierra Leone — and is viewed as more legally sound than his infamous “Muslim ban” in 2017. “We don’t want them,” Trump said in a video released late Wednesday, citing national security risks.

• Why now? Trump suggested that he was inspired to take action after the recent deadly attack in Colorado, where an Egyptian man whose visa expired allegedly firebombed people marching in support of Israeli hostages. But Egypt isn’t even on the list… because “they have things under control,” Trump said. Make it make sense!

• This news is a gut punch for people hoping to finally flee danger. “This decree is very cruel to the people of Afghanistan,” a man in the country, who assisted U.S. troops for nearly two decades, texted What A Day. His visa process was nearly finished when Trump issued the ban. “It has disappointed me greatly. I swear to God, it has made me personally mentally ill,” said the man, granted anonymity due to fears of persecution by the Taliban.

• Because of Trump’s actions, this man — whose visa application is not exempted under the ban — is losing hope. “I have been running from place to place out of fear, and my four children have been deprived of education. I live hidden from these terrorists,” he said. “Trump’s order has had a very bad effect on my life and psyche.”

• He’s not alone. Another Afghani man, who worked with USAID for over 20 years, described hiding from the Taliban, wearing glasses and face coverings to avoid being recognized at markets. His family had a flight scheduled to leave, but Trump’s policies stopped the process. “The Trump travel ban directly impacts my family … because we are not sure that we will be alive in the near future or not,” the man told What A Day.

Trump’s focus on many African countries is also befuddling, experts say.

• It’s almost like Secretary of State Marco Rubio tacked a map of Africa to a dartboard, closed his eyes, and spun in circles before firing. The ban does include some countries (such as Somalia) with dangerous extremists who could plausibly travel to the United States, experts say. But the ban ignores other perilous places (such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso).

• “Countries which the U.N. calls the ‘epicenter of global terrorism’ are not on this list, and yet other countries are. So it feels kind of haphazard,” Cameron Hudson, an expert at the Centers for Strategic and International Studies, told What A Day. “This feels … more about rewarding [an anti-immigrant] constituency in the United States for whom you know this will be a meaningful thing.”

• Also, the U.S. and China are fighting a “new Cold War in Africa” over the continent’s natural resources and want to build closer ties on international relations with those countries. Bottom line: This policy probably won’t make African nations love Trump. What’s more, the U.S. is welcoming white South African refugees into the United States, citing false claims of “white genocide” there.

Some African countries are taking the ban in stride: “Chad has no planes to offer, no billions of dollars to give,” Mahamat Déby, the country’s president, wrote on Facebook. “But Chad has dignity and pride.”

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being returned to the United States, more than two months after the Trump administration admitted to mistakenly deporting him, according to ABC News. He’ll face criminal charges over his alleged transportation of undocumented migrants in the U.S., the outlet reports. His return comes after Trump officials claimed they couldn’t bring Abrego Garcia back, despite a judge ordering them to do so. I guess these people are… liars? No way!!!

After any breakup, no one wants to be reminded of their ex: President Donald Trump’s “red Tesla with Florida tags, is either going to be given away or sold off,” Fox News reports, after his fight with Elon Musk. What’s more, Trump is “not even thinking about Elon” anymore. Ouch! That must hurt…  but not as much as losing $34 billion in net worth after the fight. Is Elon losing this breakup?

GOP lawmakers seem to be siding with Trump in the feud. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) criticized Musk for getting “personal.” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) echoed the same sentiment: “Elon is getting too personal. It’s getting out of control,” he said. “Some of the most recent comments, I think: Elon, you’ve lost your mind.” What? Was it too much when Elon accused Trump of being closely tied to child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein? We already knew about that!

Nearly a dozen ICE agents are stranded with eight migrants in a makeshift detention center in Djibouti, according to a new court filing. How’d they get there? A judge ordered Trump officials to turn around a deportation flight to South Sudan last month. Instead, officials flew to Djibouti — where they’re now stuck, facing threats from malaria and rocket attacks. Geniuses at work!

ICE released a Massachusetts high school student who they arrested on the way to volleyball practice while searching for his father. Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, described “humiliating” conditions he endured while spending six days locked in a detention center. His arrest “shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Gomes da Silva’s lawyer said. “This is all a waste.”

Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with a massive drone strike this morning, an apparent retaliation for Ukraine’s humiliating attack deep inside Russian territory earlier this week. At least three people died and 20 injured. This comes a day after Trump compared the warring countries to children fighting on a playground: “You’re better off letting them fight for a while.”

An antivax advocate hired by brainworm survivor and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scouring government records, trying to find proof that officials hid evidence linking vaccines to autism, the Wall Street Journal reports. “He has no record in the scientific community of doing valid work,” a former top CDC official told the outlet.

The University of Michigan paid private undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian protestors in 2023 and 2024, according to The Guardian. The university didn’t deny the spying: “Any security measures in place are solely focused on maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and are never directed at individuals or groups based on their beliefs or affiliations,” the school said in a statement.

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