LEVER WEEKLY: Welcome To America! (No, Not You)

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

Here’s what The Lever published this week:

Trump Taps Refugee Fund To Welcome White South Africans Within Days. Amid a near-total asylum ban, government sources say Trump officials are planning to use funds for at-risk refugees to facilitate imminent Afrikaner resettlement.

Airlines Are Collecting Your Data And Selling It To ICE. An aviation industry clearinghouse is collecting passenger information from billions of past and future flights and selling it to Trump’s immigration enforcers.

The Texas-Sized Plan To Shut You Up. A corporate-led attack on free speech in Texas is making odd bedfellows and tearing the state’s GOP apart.

The Corporate Crusade Of Trump’s Top Retirement Cop. Potential pension chief Daniel Aronowitz wants to give retirement fund managers a free pass for price-gouging workers and bungling their savings — and his company stands to profit from it.

RFK Jr.’s Vow Of Silence. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ushering in a new era of secrecy at the FDA.

They Inflated Your Gas Prices — Now Trump Wants To Let Them Off The Hook. Awash in industry donations, Trump is poised to exonerate fossil fuel executives accused of colluding to increase oil prices.

The Private Equity Time Bomb Is About To Blow. Private equity firms spent the last two decades plundering beloved American brands for parts — now, they threaten to send the economy further into a tailspin with record-high bankruptcies.

Republicans Want To Upcharge The Poor To Pay For Their Tax Cuts. The GOP’s new budget proposes raising premiums and co-pays for Medicaid beneficiaries, including those at the poverty line, to pay for sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy.

Billionaires Are Getting Their Tax Cut, With Or Without Congress. The country’s wealthiest earners stand to benefit the most as Trump slashes the IRS’ workforce and auditing power.

Big Tobacco’s Trump Whisperer. A tobacco brand and other former clients of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles are lining up to lobby the Trump administration for favors.

TAX REVOLT, Part Four: The Pledgemaster. Grover Norquist made a name for himself by canceling politicians who dared to raise taxes. Is his reign ending?

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Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:

🔪 There’s a deadly chemical in your cutting board. Alarming new research finds that 13 percent of U.S. heart disease deaths in people aged 55 to 64 can be linked to exposure to a chemical group commonly found in plastics. In 2018 alone, these phthalates contributed to 350,000 annual global deaths from heart disease. This data comes after the Food and Drug Administration under President Joe Biden declined to institute a total ban on phthalate-laden plastics in products that come in contact with food, such as wrappers, cookware, and cutting boards.

😈 The bad guys are winning. Despite a dire first quarter on Wall Street, the worst guys you know are doing just fine. That includes defense technology company Palantir (founded by Trump megadonor Peter Thiel and leading the charge on AI warfare), infamous tobacco firm Philip Morris (which has long lobbied to keep Americans addicted to cigarettes), and the ubiquitous discount chain store Dollar General (under fire for labor violations and anticompetitive behavior).

👯 Getting the gang back together. Two senior Department of Defense officials under former President Joe Biden — Sabrina Singh and Melissa Dalton — recently joined the consulting firm WestExec. That makes at least 16 former Biden officials who joined WestExec after leaving the administration in addition to a whole roster who worked at WestExec before Biden took office, including Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. The consulting firm, founded by Obama alumni and Biden’s Secretary of State-to-be Antony Blinken in 2017, has hired most of Biden’s core foreign policy team to advise a huge roster of corporate clients, including Big Tech and defense contractors. 

Every week, our paid subscribers receive a newsletter full of policy wins, environmental victories, social initiatives improving your life, and more. 

A taste of this week’s good news:

• States want kids to be kids again. 
• A Swiss bank pays up for helping Americans evade taxes. 
• Another crypto fraudster is behind bars.
• The Army wants its tools back.

Lever Leaders provide us with our highest level of support and score additional perks in return, including an annual gift of limited-edition Lever merchandise, a yearly gift subscription for friends and family, and access to an exclusive Lever staff meeting for a sneak peek at our future plans. Every week, we highlight folks who’ve taken that step, like Jason Kelly:

• “The Lever’s reporting on topics that corporate media won’t cover is critical. I‘m proud to be a Leader.”

NPR Morning Edition — Katya Schwenk joined the national radio show to discuss her breaking story on the Trump administration’s move to welcome white South African immigrants using funds intended for vulnerable refugees.

• This story was also referenced by The New York Times, Business Insider Africa, Germany-based outlet DW, Indonesia-based outlet The Jakarta Post, India-based outlet The Economic Times, and Raw Story

The Daily Show — On Jon Stewart’s political comedy show, Dutch historian and activist Rutger Bregman referenced the Powell Memo, an archival document uncovered by The Lever’s reporters in our series Master Plan.

Consumer Affairs — The outlet referenced our story on why more drugs are disappearing from insurers’ coverage.

Splinter — The outlet referenced David Sirota’s critique of corporate media plagiarizing independent journalists.

Zeteo — David Sirota joined Mehdi Hasan to discuss how even Republicans are turning against the anti-tax movement.