TIPPING THE BALANCE: Liberal candidate Susan Crawford won a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court, tipping the court to a 4-3 liberal majority and trouncing her opponent backed by Donald Trump and $20 million in support from Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.

  Crawford said in her victory speech, “As little girl growing up in Chippewa falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world.”

  She beat Brad Schimel by 257,000 more votes than Trump won the entire state.

  The race was described as a proxy vote on the politics of Trump and the influence of Musk. At the same time, Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring voter ID — one of Trump’s pet issues — even though that’s been the law in that state for 10 years. 

  In Florida, two republicans won convincingly to fill vacancies in the House. President Trump celebrated on Truth Social saying; BOTH FLORIDA HOUSE SEATS HAVE BEEN WON, BIG, BY THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE. THE TRUMP ENDORSEMENT, AS ALWAYS, PROVED FAR GREATER THAN THE DEMOCRATS FORCES OF EVIL. CONGRATULATIONS TO AMERICA!!!

ORANGE ALERT!!: President Trump is expected today to announce his reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners in what he has promoted as “Liberation Day” for America.

  Today also, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and parts goes into effect.

  By one estimate, the total cost around the globe would be $1.4 trillion. 

  Trump has promised auto shoppers that there are “plenty” of un-tariffed American-made cars for them to buy, but there is no such things as a completely American-made car. All cars, including those “Made in the USA,” have a minimum of 20 percent of their parts imported from outside the US and Canada.

  The Ford 150 pickup, for example, one of the top-selling vehicles in the US, is assembled in this country but roughly 55 percent of its parts are made outside the US or Canada. Elon Musk’s Teslas have anywhere from 25 to 40 percent foreign-made parts.  

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker last night completed a 25 hour speech on the Senate floor, the longest in Senate history, spending much of his time condemning the Trump administration.

  “In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy,” Booker said at the outset of his speech. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”

  Booker spoke for 25 hours and five minutes, surpassing the record of 24 hours, eighteen minutes set by South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond speaking to filibuster a civil rights bill in 1957. 

— The Department of Health and Human Services began 10,000 firings yesterday with some people getting notice at 5 am and others arriving at work only to find that their key cards were deactivated. Senior leaders and scientists were let go.

  This brings to about 20,000 the number of employees leaving HHS by firing, buyouts, and early retirement since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over the department.

  The NY Times reports that 131,000 employees have left federal service since Donald Trump and Elon Musk assumed power and that there are plans for elimination of yet another 171,000 people. 

— Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered overseas foreign service staff to examine  the social media content of some applicants for student and other types of visas, with the aim of barring entry to people who criticize this country and Israel.

— President Trump exacted a promise of $100 million in pro bono work and abandonment of Diversity, Equity hiring practices from the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in exchange for lifting his draconian sanctions that forbid the firm from dealing in any way with the federal government. Willkie Farr & Gallagher is just one of several law firms targeted by Trump in a campaign of revenge.

— The White House is preparing an estimate of what it would cost the federal government to control Greenland as a territory, The Washington Post reports.

— The Trump administration admits that deporting a 36-year-old Maryland resident to prison in El Salvador was an “administrative error” but they can’t do anything to reverse. The government lawyers say that because Kilmar Abrego Garcia is in the custody of El Salvador they cannot order his return.

  Garcia, originally from El Salvador, lived in the United States under legal status since October 2019. His wife and 5-year-old child are both US citizens. But Garcia was assumed to be a gang member because of his tattoos. He was sent to El Salvador on a flight that had been ordered by a federal judge not to take off.

— In his campaign against the press, Trump posted on Truth Social:

“REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor Val Kilmer, who played rocker Jim Morrison in “The Doors” and was the rival fighter pilot to Tom Cruise in “Top Gun,” died of pneumonia at age 65.

  Kilmer also played Batman after Michael Keaton and before George Clooney. He had been in poor health for years following a bout with throat cancer in 2014.

THE SPIN RACK: US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she directed her prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the accused shooter in the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione faces both state and federal charges. — China is in its second day of ominous military exercises around Taiwan.

BELOW THE FOLD: Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin unveiled a new watch that has 41 functions beyond just telling the time. It’s called “ Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication, a name almost as complex as its functions.

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