STORY OF THE WEEK: If the sine qua non of President Donald Trump is about pushing boundaries, the apex of that tendency is coming front and center. The showdown over Kilmar Abrego Garcia in particular, and federal deportees more generally, is playing out in court. Trump’s administration says this is about relocating violent criminals, while Democrats point to the fundamental principle of due process. The minority party in DC is not alone in that view. A conservative appellate judge appointed by Ronald Reagan wrote this week that the White House’s approach “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.” Whether the Trump administration will comply with judicial orders -- or heed a possible contempt finding -- is now an open question. The president said this week “homegrowns are next” for deportation. “I think the president is either consciously, or unconsciously producing or provoking a constitutional crisis,” U.S. Sen. Jack Reed told me during an interview this week. Reed said many Republicans are upset about what they see as the threat to bedrock American principles. “If we lose our protections from unreasonable search and seizure from just being picked up in the street at night by masked people thrown in the car and next time end up in El Salvador, that’s a threat to our country,” Reed said. “It is complete disrespect for the Constitution.”

2.TARIFF POLITICS: In the northwest corner of Rhode Island, the tariffs imposed by President Trump threaten to bring business to a standstill for Alashan Cashmere, since the company faces tariffs of up to 160% for importing sweaters made in China. But as I reported this week, Alashan owner Don Fox remains resolutely in support of Trump and thinks he’s trying to do the right thing by focusing on the huge trade imbalance between the U.S. and China. “I think President Trump is taking the bull by the horns unlike any other president in history and saying this is a reality and we need to do something about it,” said Fox, the president of the Burrillville Town Council. “I don’t think it can be baby steps.” Burrillville was the only Rhode Island community to give Trump more than 60% of its votes last year (61.8%) and it was also the president’s top Ocean State community in 2020 (57.5%). As RI House GOP Whip David Place (R-Burrillville) told me in an interview, for people in the town who loved Trump last year, they tend to still feel the same way now.

3. TRUMP’S SUPPORT: Through President Trump’s three runs for the White House, five rural communities have fueled his most reliable support in Rhode Island: Burrillville, Foster, Glocester, West Greenwich and Scituate (Trump’s top RI town in 2016, with 58.9% of the vote). Trump won 14 RI communities last year, up from 12 in 2020,with Woonsocket and Lincoln as the swing municipalities. Burrillville used to be a Democratic town, just as now-Democratic Barrington and East Greenwich were formerly GOP communities. Local historian and former RI GOP National Committeeman Steve Frias, who did not seek to return to that post, because of his differences with Trump, attributes the changes to national trends. “Basically, white non-college educated voters have really shifted dramatically to the Republican Party in recent years,” Frias said in an interview. 

4. LOOKING TO 2026: The latest finding from DC-based Morning Consult shows Gov. Dan McKee two points above water, with an approval rating of 43% and a disapproval of 41%. That places McKee near the bottom of the nation’s governors, although it’s not all that unusual. Republican Lincoln Almond’s approval was at 43% before he beat Democrat Myrth York in 1998. Political obituaries were being written for Democrat Gina Raimondo when she was at 43% ahead of 2018; she wound up crushing Matt Brown in the primary and vanquishing Republican Allan Fung in the general. McKee has shown a knack for winning close races, and it’s not hard to imagine him liking the idea of running with a chip on his shoulder. But the incumbent faces two wild cards as we move closer to 2026. A two-person Democratic primary race featuring Helena Foulkes poses a tougher test than the larger fields of the previously mentioned past races. And the Washington Bridge saga remains very tangible for Rhode Island voters.

5. BIDEN DENIALISM: Author Chris Whipple contends in his new book, Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, that President Biden's closest advisers and family were caught in a "fog of delusion and denial" about his ability to serve another term. Asked if Democratic voters should be angry about that, Sen. Reed told me in part: “[I]n retrospect you know, there was a series of mistakes …. I did this, what I thought was in a private meeting, I said to the White House that you have to get an examination of the president’s cognitive skills and by two independent neurologists. And get it out publicly. I said that about two weeks before he stepped out of the race. And it was used, I think, at one point to discuss with him that he should get out of the race. But that was a point I made in confidence because I think President Biden, if you look at his record, has done a good job. But at that point he had to reassure the public and myself, but the public more importantly, that he had the cognitive abilities, not only to continue his term, but one more term we hoped.”

6. THE GUN DEBATE: With lawmakers set to return to the Statehouse in the week ahead after their spring break, we’re headed into a more active phase of the General Assembly session. One issue to watch is the proposed ban on new sales of assault-style weapons. As is typical in the gun debate, there are passionate arguments and motivated partisans on each side. With the debate continuing to percolate, the RI Democratic Party plans to stage a noon event this coming Thursday, April 24, in support of the ban, at the office of the National Education Association Rhode Island, 99 Bald Hill Road, Warwick. House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and state general officers are expected to take part, along with bill sponsors and advocacy groups. The headliner for the event is Parkland survivor and March For Our Lives co-founder David Hogg, vice chair of the DNC, who is leading an effort to oust older Democrats in primary races.

7. ENTITLEMENTS: Republicans have long accused Democrats of using scare tactics to motivate older voters -- who vote at a higher  rate than younger folks. During an event this week at the St. Martin De Porres senior center in Providence, Sen. Reed and U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner said the actions of the Trump administration speak for itself, since thousands of Social Security Administration employees have been fired and field offices across the country have been shuttered.

8. SMALL D DEMOCRACY: During a recent town hall staged by Rep. Magaziner in East Greenwich, one attendee asked how citizens can make meaningful impact if they’re concerned about Trump administration initiatives. I got a similar question from a reader/listener who followed my report on the Social Security event. So I put the question to Sen. Reed of how people can effectively speak out. Here’s the gist of his response: “Well, the most effective way is here in the community, make it clear that Social Security must be protected and do that as you talk to your friends in the supermarkets as you go to public events. But the real critical audience is in those red states, frankly. So if they have friends who are in Iowa and Nebraska, et cetera, they should get on the phone and say, you know, ‘they’re gonna take away our Social Security and that is gonna be critical to you as is critical to me.’ ”

9. HOUSING SILOS: A few years ago, in detailing how Rhode Island was lagging in spending millions meant to address housing needs, my story included this: “Back in 2005, then-Governor Don Carcieri created the Executive Office of Housing and Community Development to serve as a focal point for housing. As The Providence Journal reported at the time, Carcieri told advocates that “the state is working hard to address its housing needs but lacks coordination among agencies that deal with housing. His plan — to create an Office of Housing and Community Development — will provide that coordination, he said, by establishing a central advocate for housing issues and giving those issues a voice in the State House.” Now, Gov. McKee has introduced a budget amendment, following an earlier report, that is meant to streamline the state’s governance structure on housing. 

10. GINAWORLD: Our high-flying former governor, Gina Raimondo, is set to co-chair with former Italian PM Mario Draghi an advisory board for Bloomberg New Economy, billed as “the preeminent platform for dialogue and debate about the future of the global economy.” Back in 2020, Raimondo was all-in on Mike Bloomberg’s short-lived presidential run.

11. RI POLI-MEDIA PEOPLE ON THE MOVE: Zack Mezera is signing off after five years as an organizer with the Rhode Island Working Families Party …. Grace Voll is taking on an unspecified new role while departing her gig as comms director in Pawtucket …. Via Steph Machado, longtime Providence police media liaison Lindsay Lague is no longer with the department …. Richard Popovich, most recently executive director of the Catholic Foundation of RI, has joined The Public’s Radio/Rhode Island PBS as chief revenue officer … Bristol native Charlie Enright is the new CEO of US Sailing.

12. PAWTUCKET: While the long-time financial impact of a new soccer stadium is a story for some point in the future, Fortuitous Partners this week announced a new phase for Tidewater Landing involving residential buildings with commercial space and about 550 residential units. Via statement, the developers said, “The Stadium is expected to bring community engagement, local pride, and economic growth to the area, and this development will play a vital role in enhancing quality of life for residents and visitors.”

13. THE ECONOMY: Via URI: “The Current Conditions Index value for February fell into the contraction range of 42. Only five of the 12 CCI indicators improved for the month, and Retail Sales, a key indicator that had remained solid since the pandemic, fell for the first time since May 2023. While the decline in Retail Sales is worrisome, it is only an indicator value for a single time period, said University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro. But he added: “At this present time, I believe that Rhode Island has entered a Growth Recession. … Obviously, this is not where we want our state’s economy to be heading into a period of national weakness exacerbated by a tariff war, but that’s where we find ourselves.”

14. TOURO SYNAGOGUE: David Wright unpacks the storied history and latest developments involving the oldest synagogue in the United States.

15. FALL RIVER: Ben Berke reports on the escalating conflict at the top of the city’s police department: The Fall River Police Department has now churned through four police chiefs in five years, leaving a department that recently suffered excessive force and improper drug handling scandals without stable leadership. [Kelly] Furtado, the mayor’s latest pick, might not last very long either. At a City Council meeting last week, councilors pushed back on Coogan’s effort to appoint her permanently.

16. PRIZES: Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio have been nominated for 17 New England Emmys. Take a look at the nominated stories here.

17. KICKER: Your humble correspondent is enough of a baseball traditionalist that I cringe at all the hype about betting and favor many time-tested aspects of the game. But I’m down with the ghost runner in extra innings and John Thorn once told me the DH was first proposed more than 100 years ago, so where to draw the line? The question is even more fraught when contemplating the approach of our robot overlords and the frailties of human umpires. The estimable Tom Caron was appropriately vexed when an ump blew a call that led the ChiSox to gain a run against the Sox this week, even though Boston prevailed in the end. “We can’t get to #robotumps fast enough,” Caron tweeted. Well, perhaps some human/robot hybrid, approach with a limited number of appeals per game.