STANDOFF: The Trump administration continues on its collision course with a federal judge without actually crashing.

  Federal Judge James Boasberg in Washington is still pushing for answers from the Trump administration about its deportation of hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under authority of the 1798 Enemy Aliens Act. Boasberg said the ramifications of invoking the Enemies act are “incredibly troublesome and problematic and concerning.”

  The act was written for use in times of war, and the US is not at war with Venezuela or any other country. The suspected gang members were deported without any due process.

  This started days ago when Boasberg ordered the administration to turn around two planes full of deportees already in the air, but they landed in El Salvador anyway. A third plane took off after he forbid the flights.

  Administration lawyers since then have stonewalled, holding back information, and claiming the shield of national security 

  “The government is not being terribly cooperative at this point,” Judge Boasberg said, “but I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order and who was responsible.”

  President Trump is not conceding anything. “This was a bad group,” he said yesterday, “and they were in bad areas and they were with a lot of other people that were absolutely killers murderers, and people that were really bad with the worst records that you’ve ever seen.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— President Trump announced that with the dismantling of the Department of Education the Small Business Administration will take over the administration of student loans while the Department of Health and Human Services will handle special needs and nutrition programs for schools.

— The President renewed his call for the end of birthright citizenship, posting on Truth Social; “The 14th Amendment Right of American Citizenship never had anything to do with modern day “gate crashers,” illegal immigrants who break the Law by being in our Country, it had everything to do with giving Citizenship to former slaves. Our Founding Fathers are ‘spinning in their graves’ at the idea that our Country can be taken away from us.”

— Elon Musk’s political action committee is offering Wisconsin voters who sign a petition opposing “activist judges” $100 in advance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 1^st.

— Trump announced that Boeing has been awarded the contract to build the world’s first “6^thgeneration” fighter jets, the F-47. In his usual superlatives Trump said, “nothing in the world comes even close to it,”  and, “It’s something the likes of which nobody has seen before.” Actually, they have. Developmental versions of the plane have been flying for five years.

— The President yesterday issued a memo revoking the security clearances of a long list of his political enemies, including former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. It was payback for Biden, who took away Trump’s security clearance because of the January 6^th insurrection.

— Columbia University bowed to threats by President Trump to take away $400 million in funding, promising to to overhaul policies on campus protests, security, and most troubling, to examine its Middle Eastern studies department. Trump had complained that Columbia was not doing enough to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism.

THE OBIT PAGE: George Foreman, the heavyweight boxing champion who returned to regain his title at the ancient age of 45 then used his amiable personality to build a multimillion-dollar business selling tabletop grills, died yesterday at 76.

  Foreman was retired from the ring for 10 years when he came back to beat the undefeated Michael Moorer to reclaim the world boxing title. Foreman fought all the greats across decades;  Chuck Wepner, “The Bayonne Bleeder” in the 1960s, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in the ’70s, Dwight Muhammad Qawi in the ’80s and Evander Holyfield in the ’90s.

  After winning heavyweight gold in the 1968 Olympics, Foreman fought his way to a title bout with Joe Frazier in 1973. Foreman came into the ring with 3-1 odds against him then punched Frazier to helplessness and the fight was stopped half way through the second round. For the rest of boxing history the words of announcer Howard Cosell have echoed, “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”

THE SPIN RACK: London’s Heathrow airport returned to full operations today following a fire in an electrical substation that knocked out power, closing the airport yesterday and backing up air travel around the world. — The NCAA has finished its first round of 64 in March Madness, narrowing the field to 32 basketball teams. — At least 404 cases of measles have been reported in the country so far this year, 309 of them in Texas. The US had 285 cases in all of last year. Most of the infected re not vaccinated. — Disney’s live action re-make of “Snow White” opened today amid controversy over its “woke” themes. For one thing, Snow White isn’t waiting for the man of her dreams and doesn’t sing, “Someday My Prince Will Come.”

BELOW THE FOLD: Police in Orlando, Florida yesterday recovered two pairs of diamond earrings stolen from a Tiffany store then swallowed by the thief. They broke the case the old fashioned way … by holding the suspect in custody and waiting … for 12 days. 

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