Over 1.4 million residents of Puerto Rico lost their power on Wednesday. The massive power outage resulted in a major blackout across the U.S. territory. The company that generates power in Puerto Rico, Genera PR, stated, “We have experienced a massive blackout across the entire island due to all of the power generation plants unexpectedly going offline.” The cause of the black out is currently unknown. Power Outage Causes Blackout Across All Of Puerto Ricohttps://t.co/NYt5OLoQFu pic.twitter.com/7RIJ9s0H0g — Forbes (@Forbes) April 16, 2025 Puerto Rico is experiencing a total island-wide blackout with all power plants generating zero electricity. The outage forced passengers to evacuate Tren Urbano rail cars as services came to a halt. Authorities are investigating the cause. pic.twitter.com/xag9Fn7SGS — Geopoliti? Monitor (@GeopolitixM) April 16, 2025 Per The New York Times: More than 1.4 million customers in Puerto Rico lost electricity on Wednesday afternoon when all of the island’s power plants were knocked out of service. The cause was not immediately clear, according to the private electrical companies that generate and distribute Puerto Rico’s power. The island often recovers slowly from power disruptions. It has taken as long as several days to restore service after similar blackouts in the past, including an islandwide outage on New Year’s Eve. “We have experienced a massive blackout across the entire island due to all of the power generation plants unexpectedly going offline,” Genera PR, the company that generates power in Puerto Rico, said in a social media post on Wednesday. Luma Energy, the company that distributes energy, said in its own post that the blackout began around 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday. Many Puerto Ricans were preparing on Wednesday to be off work starting on Thursday as part of Holy Week; Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón was away on a personal trip. Puerto Rico was hit by another massive power outage Wednesday, leaving a majority of the United States territory in the dark for a second time in four months, officials said. Read more: https://t.co/HIF2ekVOeI pic.twitter.com/WFD2hvJnvo — ABC News (@ABC) April 16, 2025 Check out what ABC News reported: Puerto Rico was hit by another massive power outage Wednesday, leaving the United States territory in the dark for a second time in four months, officials said. Local power authorities, Genera and LUMA, recorded a system failure at approximately 12:40 p.m. that affected service island-wide. In a post on X, LUMA Energy said it could take two to three days to restore service to 90% of customers — and that the priority for now is to restore power to critical facilities, such as the Centro Médico hospital in the capital San Juan.

Noah here and boy oh boy do I have a big one for you here!  I put all my blood, sweat and tears into this one, and I really hope you do enjoy.  There’s so much history here I had to give you to get everything set up, but I promise it will be worth it so please read to the end.  I hope I can get hundreds or even thousands of you doing this challenge with me (starting right now!) and a quick spoiler alert that it might not be what you think it is based on the headline.  Don’t just a book by its cover, please read to the end.  Thanks!  Now let’s jump in…. A year ago, I had never heard of a “Q-Link”.  Had no idea what it was. Then our very own Winger (writer here at WLT Report) told me about them. And honestly, I was skeptical the first I heard of them… You really expect me to believe that wearing a necklace pendant can actually make me feel a lot better?  Stronger?  Get rid of chronic symptoms? But…it was Winger telling me about it, and I trust Winger.  I also trust his own experiences, and he was telling me that for years he would have chronic headaches and nothing he did worked to get rid of them — until he tried wearing the Q-Link.  Then they came back after he stopped wearing it, which was even bigger confirmation. So out of respect to Winger, I took a look and I’m really glad I did. But I’m not here to try and convince you of anything or to say take my word for it! No….instead, what I thought would be really fun is challenge as many of you who want to do it to take the Q-Link Challenge with me this summer. And the Q-Link Challenge actually doesn’t involve the Q-Link at all….it starts with “electro-culture” and Nikola Tesla. Allow me to back up even further and explain… What initially sounded to me as far-fetched and a little New-Age (a necklace pendant can really make me feel that much better?) later sounded not silly at all and definitely not New-Age the more I understood how it worked and how Nikola Tesla’s research into the Ether (sometimes spelled Aether) worked. You see, I happen to believe God designed our world to perfection, which is not hard to believe.  If he’s God and he created everything, you’d have to believe his creation would be incredible, fine-tuned down to incredible degrees and built-in redundancies all over the place, right? The more we learn about where we live, the more that is proven right to staggering degrees. Our world is absolutely fine-tuned to incredible precision.  If the sun were just slightly farther away or closer, life on Earth would not be possible.  The fine-tuning at the molecular and atomic levels is similarly mind-blowing.  Evidence of not just Intelligent Design but BEAUTIFUL design is all over the place. And I love science, because one definition of “science” is simply the process of discovering what God has created!  I love that definition. Science and God are not at odds.  They can’t be.  Science merely discovers what God has made.  There may be times when Science seems to conflict with what God’s word says and then something incredible always happens — science ends up making new discoveries and revising itself and over time God’s Word stands firm, unchanging. Why am I telling you all of this and what the heck does any of this have to do with the Q-Link? I’m getting there. You see, while I love Science, a true enemy of truth has emerged in the 20th and 21st centuries and that is “Scientism”. Scientism is fake science.  It’s an anti-God religion dressed up as Science but it does nothing that true Science does. True Science sets forth a hypothesis, tests it, ensures that test and result can be replicated, and then let’s the cards fall where they may. But Scientism does none of that.  Scientism comes armed with a conclusion right off the bat, no testing needed and actually no testing ALLOWED.  Scientism is perfectly encapsulated by Dr. Fauci saying “Trust the science” and then declaring himself the science. No thinking was allowed. No testing was allowed. If you dared to challenge anything he said you would be fired, shunned, lose status, become a pariah, etc., etc.  We all lived through it, you know exactly what I mean. Ok, now I’m at the good part…. Science used to have a very clear understanding of the Ether that was all around us.  Essentially free energy in the air all around us. Nikola Tesla proved it in many experiments and was in the process of unleashing free energy on the world until the machine suddenly turned on him and shut him down.  Despite being brilliant, he died penniless and his inventions were scrubbed. Scientism then stepped in and told the world the Ether was not real and instead of free electricity we got centralized and controlled energy — and most importantly, the ability for the elite to throw a meter on the electricity doled out and charge for it. It’s ALWAYS about the money folks, just follow the money. The more you look into this, the more you’ll find it’s true, so I encourage you to do your own research on this.  The truth stands tall like a lion, it can defend itself. And here’s a little jumpstart for you.  Here is Patrick Bet-David on the PBD Podcast talking with Terrence Howard (who seems a bit kooky to me) but the part I loved in this episode was Patrick bringing on Dr. Wing Yu a PhD in engineering and physics and currently working for NASA — and he confirms that the Ether is very real and was covered up since the time of Nikola Tesla. So here’s my basic theory based on all I’ve researched and also just on my life experience…. I believe God made our world with incredible detail and incredible redundancies. It’s no secret that sunlight and Vitamin D are incredibly good for you and can have incredible healing properties.  No chemicals needed.  No pills needed.  Just go outside and soak in the giant energy source God put in the sky above us! In fact, if you know your history, you know that hospitals used to have giant sun-decks or solariums to harness the simple healing power of the sun: Old hospitals had sun decks. The sun HEALS YOU pic.twitter.com/N9ZLViG6NI — Betty (@CaliforniaFrizz) September 4, 2024 Did you know? Hospitals Once Had Sun Decks Because They Knew the Healing Power of the Sun Now, they’ve removed them, claiming the sun causes c*nceř, and advise you to wear synthetic chemicals that block its healing electromagnetic energy. pic.twitter.com/7K2ECKbenw — vegastar (@vegastarr) October 5, 2024 But Scientism has done it’s best to convince us sunlight is bad for us. Wear your sunscreen!  Make sure you block all that healthy, healing sunlight and Vitamin D! Wear a hat when you go outside.  Wear sunglasses.  Wear long-sleeves.  Slather on sunscreen in the morning even before you leave the house! It’s garbage. And I think what Scientism has done to sunlight and Vitamin D is exactly the same thing they did to the Ether. The only difference is, their war on sunlight is more recent and so some of us remember the time of hospital solariums and the healing power of the sun. But the war on the Ether is too old and most of us don’t read our history.  So we think the Ether is fake. Not me. I think the Ether is just another brilliant and beautiful redundancy God hard-wired into our Earth. He knew we’d need help, so he put a giant healing yellow ball up in the sky that would send down rays that can do incredible healing when we soak them in. And I believe in the air he put the Ether, which can also have incredible properties. Ever heard of “Grounding”? That’s where the Q-Link challenge comes in, and we’re not going to start with the Q-Link we’re going to start with Gardening and something called “electro-culture”. Because the results will be undeniable!  And that’s what I like.  Scientifically-provable and repeatable results! What is electro-culture? It’s a technique in harnessing energy to boost the plants growth. Basically, you take a big stick, wrap a copper wire around it (acts like a receiver for the Ether in the air) and that copper wire mixed with the grounding naturally provided by the Earth brings powerful waves of energy out of the air and into the soil and dirt and root system around the neighboring plants. The result? Massive energy brought in yields massive growth of the plants nearby. Every. Single. Time. But the government used the media to attack it and use slurs against those that benefited from it. Here’s 3 pages from Justin Christofleau’s book, Electroculture (1927): (That’s a link to a free PDF of the book) How is it done? Well, the main tool to this government concealed technique is…copper. (There’s been research that it can be applied to humans as well. I’ll explain that at the end.) You see, this used to be a popular way to grow food. But the problem was, it created an abundance of food. The food was too large. And too plentiful. We know that’s not good for our greedy overlords. They live by the rule of scarcity. So they convinced farmers that if they grow too much food, the price they charged for food would go down, and they wouldn’t sell as much, and they’d have to throw it away and lose profits. Didn’t take too long for the farmers to abandon this technique. But we aim to live by the rule of abundance, to take back what was stolen from us long ago. In every area. So we’re rediscovering how things used to be in regards to our food. Here’s a short clip that shows the results of using electro culture for your garden: Have you guys ever heard about electro culture? Look at the results people are achieving with their fruit and vegetable harvests pic.twitter.com/gUAyFfXLyk — Kevin – WE THE PEOPLE (@bambkb) April 23, 2024 It’s basically a copper wire wrapped around a stick. (It doesn’t have to be a bamboo stick). Our current farming practice is completely backwards. Use tools that are covered in rust on food that we consume? Terrible! Why do you think Electroculture was banned? pic.twitter.com/XHfDllMLUK — Olive (@MaygaSpunky) June 1, 2024 More and more people are jumping in and trying out electro culture. And they’re blown away by the results! I am beyond blessed Every Morning There is more then yesterday…If you haven’t tried #Electroculture Copper is a gameChanger. pic.twitter.com/BpBZQg6Vup — 0⃣BlackBetty (@BabyD1111229) June 18, 2024 Ever hear of ELECTRO CULTURE? The use of copper wire to grab energy from the air and charge your soil? It works The picture is our potato bed…the other potatoes were here and there kinda “normal” The group you see in the pic were all huddled around the copper wire pic.twitter.com/JPbN3OXeui — Doug and Stacy (@DougandStacy) July 8, 2024 I even asked Grok if “electro culture” was real and here’s what it told me: Give it a try! You can make your own if you want: It’ll be a fun experiment you can do and watch the results over the summer. Just to remind you, there’s different thickness when it comes to copper wire. The thicker, the better. So swing by Lowe’s or Home Depot and have them cut it off the spool for you, rather than the thin one that comes in a pack for about $7. But the thin wire would be good if that’s all you’ve got. Here’s a side by side clip that shows a group of plants using the antenna vs the same type not using the antenna: If you have a garden and you haven’t studied electroculture, you are doing yourself a disservice. Look at these results. pic.twitter.com/zS2XjhntOe — Ted Theodore Logan (@TedLogan1010) May 15, 2023 There’s energy all around us that we can tap into. This isn’t some ‘spiritual’ or ‘new age’ idea. That’s the lie we’ve been told. This is just science. An area of science omitted from the school books. Check this clip out. A guy is getting energy from a tree – he plugs a light bulb into it and it lights up! This is why electroculture works so well Everything is electric This is also why grounding is so important Dont forget to touch some dirt my dudes pic.twitter.com/4Vkmg2BKep — Rufus_2688 (@No_Curve) September 13, 2023 Or you can buy a pack on Amazon. And if you’d rather have a “done for you” solution, these are my favorite ones currently on Amazon and the ones I purchased and use in my own garden (and at the time I’m writing this you can also clip a 5% off coupon too right on Amazon): SEE IT HERE: THE CHALLENGE Ok, now here’s the challenge… I am so confident you will see massive results from this that will be undeniable to your eyes that as we head into Spring and Summer I want you to get two pots for your yard. It doesn’t matter what you want to grow — flowers, fruit, vegetables, you pick — but we’re going to grow the exact same thing in each pot.  And we’re going to put the pots close by each other so they get the same sunlight and are exposed to the same elements.  And try to plant equal sized plants of whatever you choose in each pot. The test will then be that we’re going to put one electro-culture rod (as seen above) in one pot but we’re not going to put one in the other pot.  For the science nerds out there, that will give us our control pot (no electro-culture rod) and the test post (containing an electro-culture rod). Then we’re just going to let time do its thing. Water them the same, keep everything else as similar as possible, and we’re just going to see which one grows bigger and faster. Folks, I’ve personally done this myself last summer and the results were staggering.  Beyond any doubt. But I don’t want you to trust me. I want YOU to do your own challenge. And then as your plants grow, please send me pictures and show me the results! I will do an updated post mid-summer or Fall with the results, and I will publish anyone and everyone who sends me their results. This will be so much fun, I can’t wait to get started! Sound good? Are you in? Let’s crowd-source this together! Q-Link Now where does the Q-Link fit in? As I said at the beginning of this article, I’m not here to convince you to buy a Q-Link pendant.  But I am here to print the truth and to tell you my experience, which has been incredible (similar to Winger’s experience). And IF the electro-culture experiment yields HUGE results as I expect it will, then I’ll leave it to you to decide what to do next, but the logical conclusion might be to tap into the Ether for yourself and boost your body! That’s what I did. You can see the Q-Link pendant here: Within it is a copper coil, similar to that used in electro culture. Let’s check the blood cells of those that wear the pendant and compare it to the results from grounding: Almost identical! But with grounding, you’re only doing that for a few minutes, maybe an hour? Then the shoes go back on and you’re back to the real word. But the necklace? You just leave it on all day and all night. So far, over 1 million of these bad boys have been sold. Now, I don’t claim to fully understand how this works. I’m not a scientist. I’ve just seen it work really well on a lot of people. The company states the technology in the pendant will give you: More vitality, greater focus, improved performance, and better stress response. Many wearers claim it helps your body to deal with EMFs (electro magnetic frequencies). I believe it helps, not by stopping the EMFs, but by boosting the state of your body so it will combat the effects of EMFs. I was shocked to discover that one of the founders who came across this technology happened to perform and record with The Beach Boys! You may have noticed a few celebrities wearing it over the years. Here’s Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran: For you golfers out there (someone get a Q-Link for Trump!) it will boost your performance on the green. In fact, a whopping 97% of the subjects improved their stress levels. And that was from wearing the pendant for LESS than 1 minute. (By the way, how cool is it that it’s called the “Q” Link?  Things that make you go hmmmmmmm) The author of Yoga of Golfers, Katherine Roberts, says: Q-Link will help lower your golf score by quieting the mind, relaxing the body. SFGate reports: Jimmy Page, one of rock’s all-time guitar heroes, is featured on the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone sporting his from way back. Lindsay Lohan was photographed wearing hers after she checked out of rehab. And more than 300 golfers in the PGA wear theirs; 120 championships on the links have been won with them, and many on the tour say it’s all because of the Q-Link. Bruce Fleisher, 2001 U.S. Senior Open Champ said, “The week after I put it on, I won the Senior Open. Was it luck? Absolutely. Destiny? You better believe it.” There’s more. “It was amazing. In the space of a few weeks, the guy pitching the opener of the World Series, Josh Beckett, flying out of his shirt was the Q-Link and then Alex Shabalov, the U.S. chess champ, was wearing it,” said Richard Gray, president and CEO of Clarus Transphase Scientific Inc., maker of Q-Link. “In a chess blog, he said he put it on and it helped him to win the tournament.” TruthinAging tested it out: When I put it on, the effects were astoundingly immediate.  This was when I returned from a trip to Scotland and had to DJ that night.  My schedule would have had me slipping in and out of consciousness around 10pm, but wearing the Q-Link had me showing no signs of fatigue. In fact, I felt great! Believe it or not, athletes swear by this as its reported to improve mental focus and endurance, and I’ll have to vouch for them as it definitely makes me feel more aware  and productive at the gym.  I think of it as acupuncture around your neck; I feel harmonized, I sleep well, my sense of well-being is spot on and my “chi” has never been so aligned.  And that jet-lag?  Done and done.” I’m sharing this because I want to share my own personal testimonial with you. A Q-Link helped my mom, who was huffing and puffing as she tried walking up the stairs. I’ll never forget seeing that. It disturbed me. Her health wasn’t the same after having a stroke last year. I was worrying that she might have another. Then it dawned on me. “Duh, get her a Q-Link!” Of course. I just had a feeling in my gut (that was probably God) to order her one. So I got her one and she changed over night! Well, around day 2 or day 3 of wearing it is when she showed me the change. She said “Look at this!” and then preceded to go up and down the stairs like normal. She couldn’t believe it! She said she even felt more energetic. Talk about a sigh of relief. So, I put a link below so you can order one. I’m hoping it will bless you as much as it did my family. I pray God gets this to the right people. Do I have a pendant? Heck yeah I do. Now, I’m fairly healthy so I don’t have a big recovery story. But what I did notice is that the headaches I would get every week, were almost non-existent. Writing this now, I can’t recall the last headache I had. Thank God! About 4 months ago (I know, I should’ve shared this sooner) I took it off for a bit just to wear a different normal necklace. About a week or so later I thought ‘Why am I getting these headaches again? Am I eating more sugar?’ Then it hit me. I stopped wearing my Q-Link! Popped it back on immediately. Haven’t made that mistake since. Also, I do sleep great. You might get more dreams wearing this too. That seems to be a common effect. Click here to get your own Q-Link: Hang on, I just remembered. I used the code “RENEW” when I got my mom her necklace. It gave me, I think 10% off? You can try that it out, see if it still works. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to share that? NOTE: These are just my personal testimonials, from my own personal experience.  Things I have witnessed.  I cannot tell you these are medical devices, because they are not.  I cannot claim they will diagnose, treat or cure any disease, health or medical condition whatsoever. You know, the same lying bastards that… …settled a lawsuit over some of its posts about ivermectin, including what may have been one of its more popular pandemic-era social media campaigns. In August 2021, to discourage people from using ivermectin to prevent or treat Covid-19, the FDA tweeted “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Serious y’all. Stop It.” and posted a similar message on Instagram. Can we trust the FDA? Personally, if the FDA doesn’t endorse an item, I’m all for it. And if they’re against something, I friggin’ embrace! But that’s just me. Here are some other unsolicited testimonials I found from people who had similar experiences to me: Here’s a recent testimonial from a ‘techie’ YouTuber, stating how his stress levels are basically zero, and his trouble falling asleep is over. He’s now sleeping like a baby. So give it a try. Implement the gardening technique that the Establishment hates. Wrap some copper wire around sticks and add the to your garden. And put a Q-Link around you neck. TAP HERE TO GET ONE Then stand back and watch the magnificence genius of God’s creation do it’s thing. Nothing in this article shall be deemed as claiming any product can diagnose, treat or cure any disease, health or medical condition whatsoever.  We cannot give you personalized medical advice.  

An island-wide blackout plunged Puerto Rico into darkness on Wednesday. “The outage is affecting as many as 1.4 million customers,” ABC News reports. “LUMA continues working on the process of restoring the electrical system following the outage recorded at 12:38 p.m., following the unexpected shutdown of all generating plants. As part of our efforts to restore the electrical system, our personnel have continued working since the beginning of the event and will continue their efforts overnight to advance service restoration. We reiterate that, based on initial projections, we estimate that service will be restored to 90% of customers within 48 to 72 hours,” LUMA Energy wrote. “Our priority is to restore service to critical facilities such as the Centro Médico hospital and to customers as we have available generation. As part of our investigative efforts, we have conducted aerial patrols with helicopters, which identified that the event was caused by a combination of factors. Preliminary analysis points to a failure in the protection system as the initial trigger of the event, followed by the presence of vegetation on a transmission line between Cambalache and Manatí,” it continued. “This sequence of failures triggered a series of events that resulted in an island-wide outage. This event once again highlights the fragility of the electrical system, something LUMA has pointed out since the beginning of its operations. We remain committed to transforming it into a safer and more reliable system for all customers in Puerto Rico. We will continue to issue official updates as we move forward in the process,” it added. Actualización 8:00p.m – LUMA continúa trabajando en el proceso de restablecimiento del sistema eléctrico luego de la interrupción registrada a las 12:38 p.m., tras la salida inesperada de todas las plantas de generación. Como parte de nuestros esfuerzos para restaurar el… — LUMA Puerto Rico (@lumaenergypr) April 17, 2025 ABC News reports: Earlier in the day, LUMA Energy said the Palo Seco plant, located just outside San Juan, came back online around 3 p.m., “which represents a key step toward system recovery.” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) claimed in a social media post that over 400,000 Puerto Ricans were without electricity. “The three million American citizens of Puerto Rico have long been denied affordable and reliable electricity—despite paying some of the highest utility rates in the United States,” Torres said. “Access to dependable power—a basic right most Americans take for granted—remains out of reach for millions on the island. As we speak, more than 400,000 Puerto Ricans are without electricity in the wealthiest nation on Earth. That is a national disgrace.” This outage is the latest in a series of significant blackouts that have plagued the island in recent years, following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, which destroyed much of the power grid. Gov. Jenniffer González, who was traveling, stated that officials were “working diligently” to resolve the outage. Power Outage Causes Blackout Across All Of Puerto Ricohttps://t.co/NYt5OLoQFu pic.twitter.com/7RIJ9s0H0g — Forbes (@Forbes) April 16, 2025 WATCH: Puerto Rico was hit with its second massive island-wide power outage since New Year's Eve. About 47% of customers have power back up and running as of the morning of April 17. https://t.co/Qlhip5tXwT pic.twitter.com/Yvu5SsUCBk — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 17, 2025 Per USA TODAY: Damage to the island’s power grid caused by Hurricane Maria persists years later. And in 2022, Hurricane Fiona once again plunged the island into darkness, causing a blackout that affected the entire U.S. territory of 3.2 million people. “It is unacceptable that five years after hurricane Maria, nothing has fundamentally changed,” Agustín Carbó, the San Juan-based senior manager of energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund, said in 2022. “The current energy crisis is dire, and Puerto Ricans and the island’s economy are suffering.” Additionally, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake rumbled across Puerto Rico in early 2020, knocking out power to virtually the entire island. Former President Joe Biden approved billions of dollars in disaster funding for Puerto Rico and promised then Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm would lead a “supercharged effort” to modernize Puerto Rico’s power grid. For years, Puerto Rico has also faced a debt crisis which left the island unable to afford to maintain the grid, according to Laura Kuhl, a professor of public policy and urban affairs and international affairs at Northeastern University. The lack of maintenance combined with the centralized, top-down system make the grid particularly vulnerable to massive outages, Kuhl told Northeastern Global News in January.

The Liverpudlians haven’t released a metal album in five years but seem to have new music ready

The highest court in the UK found that a woman is defined by biology. It was a win over insanity and illogic thanks to three brave and determined Scottish women. Women praised what should have been obvious, and many thought it was a step in the right direction. However, that was only one battle, not […] The post For Those Who Think the UK Can Define a Woman, Behold UK’s Prime Minister appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

There was a mass shooting at Florida State University. According to a Fox News report, at least six were injured. They reported that at least one person is in custody. The shooting took place at the student union. A second potential shooter could be deceased. Some reports say two to five are deceased and four […] The post Mass Shooting at Florida State University appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

CNN pollster Harry Enten said on Thursday that President Donald Trump is strongest on his immigration policy — and, in fact, a majority of Americans agreed with him when he said that all illegal immigrants should be deported. Enten laid out the details during a Thursday appearance on CNN News Central with anchor Kate Bolduan, where he noted just how far public sentiment had swung since Trump’s first administration on that particular issue — and how many Americans appeared to agree that Trump’s policies were an improvement on those of former President Joe Biden. WATCH: Immigration is "where Trump wants the focus… Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top." -His net approval on immigration is positive -A plurality say under Trump immigration policy is on the right track (unlike under Biden) -Most want all undocumented immigrants deported pic.twitter.com/5RbgJPjW7D — (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) April 17, 2025 “Why is Trump focusing on immigration? Let me just tell you, this is where Trump wants the focus. Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top. Why is that?” Enten asked before going to the data. In 2017, several months into his first term in the White House, Trump had been underwater (-12 points) on immigration policy. Eight years later, with arguably stricter policies in place, Trump was above water by one point on the same issue. “This is one of his strongest issues at plus one point,” Enten continued. “And more than that on the net approval — the net approval for him on this issue has stayed steady in the positive. This is an area where Donald Trump wants to focus because the bottom line is this is an area in which the American people, at least the bare majority of them, seem to like what he’s doing.” Bolduan briefly raised the issue of the economy, saying that Trump was less popular on that particular topic, before asking Enten to lay out the difference between Trump and Biden on the immigration issue. “We know that this was why he leaned into immigration so much,” Bolduan said. “Yes, this is a big reason why,” Enten agreed, adding, “So take a look here. This is on immigration. What track are we on? The right track or the wrong track? Look in December. Look at the percentage who said we were on the wrong track, 62% of Americans, when Joe Biden was in office, compared to just 14% who said that we were on right track. Flash forward to April. Well, hello. 45% say we’re on the right track, compared to 42% who say we were on the long track.” “So in a big switcheroo from where we were back in January, the plurality of Americans say that the country is on the right track when it comes to immigration policy. Back in December, when Joe Biden was president, the vast majority said that we were on the wrong track. Again, this points out that on the whole, Americans like where we’re going on immigration policy under Donald Trump, which is very different from where we were under Joe Biden,” Enten said. Enten concluded with one last comparison, showing the dramatic change in public perception regarding mass deportations since the beginning of Trump’s first term. “Voters favoring the government trying to deport all 11 million of them, back in 2016, just 38% of voters wanted the government to try to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. Compared to where we are in 2025. Fifty-six percent – the majority,” Enten said. “The American people have come a long way on this issue, much closer to Donald Trump, and I think that’s a big part of the reason why Americans are increasingly saying the country is on the right track when it comes to immigration policy, and why Donald Trump’s net approval rating on that issue is in the positive, very much unlike his first term.”

President Trump declared “there will be a trade deal, 100%” with Europe before a meeting Thursday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the first European leader to visit the White House since he paused planned tariffs last week. The meeting comes just days after both the European Union and Trump paused respective tariffs for 90 days to allow time for negotiations. The Italian Prime Minister has been dubbed the “Trump Whisperer” by the media, meeting with Trump before even EU Commission leader Ursula von der Leyen, who Trump has yet to schedule a meeting with 88 days into his presidency. “I’m sure we can make a deal, and I am here to help with that,” Meloni said to the media prior to her lunch with Trump. “I cannot lock this deal in the name of the European Union,” she added, per the New York Post. “My goal would be to invite President Trump to pay an official visit to Italy and understand if there’s a possibility when it comes to organizing such a meeting with Europe.” The White House sees Meloni as a possible bridge between Trump and the 27-member European bloc, who Trump has accused of trying “screw” the United States on trade, establishing what officials describe as a “bespoke” trade deal. Aside from trade, another issue likely to be addressed in the meeting is NATO, with Trump likely to prod Meloni on Italy’s failure to hit the requisite 2% of GDP on defense spending agreed to decades ago. Italy is currently one of eight countries failing to hit that benchmark, at only 1.5%, per The New York Times. Meloni addressed this point, saying, “Europe, as you know, is committed to do more, is working on tools to allow and help the [NATO] member states in increasing the defense spending. And we are convinced that everyone has to do more.” Administration officials indicated Trump will also pitch having Italy import more American energy as part of his broader goal to “unleash American energy exports to the rest of the world.” In 2024, the United States trade deficit with the European Union stood at approximately $236 billion, with American manufacturers often competing against European products while facing higher tariffs and more restrictive regulations when exporting to EU markets. Trump’s approach seeks to address these disparities through bilateral negotiations with key European partners. Meloni’s visit carries particular significance as both leaders share common ground as populist conservatives who have emphasized national sovereignty and border security. The Italian Prime Minister rose to power in 2022 as the country’s first female leader, campaigning on a platform that resonated with conservative voters concerned about immigration and traditional values. The “Liberation Day” tariffs that Trump temporarily suspended included a 25% tariff on European luxury cars, steel, and aluminum, and a 20% levy on billions of dollars of European goods ranging from food products to machinery. Following their discussions, Trump and Meloni are scheduled to hold a joint press conference in the Rose Garden, where further details about potential trade agreements and bilateral cooperation may be announced.

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville ripped into newly-elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg, referring to the younger activist as a “contemptible little twerp” and even advising the DNC to sue him. Carville, who made an appearance on NewsNation on Wednesday, told anchor Chris Cuomo that his particular complaint was Hogg’s recent announcement regarding plans to direct millions of dollars toward primaries against incumbent Democrats. Hogg, who also serves as president of an organization called Leaders We Deserve, said that the group planned to funnel some $20 million into challenging incumbent Democrats — and Carville took issue with Hogg for what he said looked as though he was putting more effort into attacking his own party than helping expand it into a broader coalition. WATCH: In which James Carville calls DNC Vice Chair David Hogg "a contemptible little twerp" for reportedly supporting efforts to primary sitting Democrats "I don't know if I have standing, but I might give the DNC $10 to sue him. He's a contemptible little twerp if you ask me." pic.twitter.com/D0TrZT59g0 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 17, 2025 “Why doesn’t somebody sue David Hogg? He’s an officer of the Democratic National Committee. He is the vice chairman of the Democrat National Committee, and he’s running against other Democrats. I would like to know, and you went to law school, does he have a fiduciary duty to Democrats?” Carville asked. “If I work for, if you work for NewsNation, you can’t promote CNN. That’s if you worked for somebody else,” Carville continued. “You have a fiduciary duty to your employer, which anybody can understand. He’s being paid to run against other Democrats. I think it’s an outrage. I don’t know if I have standing, but I might give the DNC $10 and sue him. He is a contemptible little twerp, if you ask me.” Carville also took aim at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over their tour protesting “oligarchy,” saying that they were cut from the same cloth as Hogg. “Let me make a point about Bernie and AOC. Bernie’s run for president twice. He’s lost twice. AOC and her kind, and this guy, David Hogg, they want to run against other Democrats. They don’t run against Republicans,” Carville added. “When you beat a Republican, come back and see me, and I will be impressed!”