Samuel Wells

Planner, City and built environment enthusiast. Tweets, retweets, and likes reflect my own opinions. Let's go Bills, Sabres, and Devils!

[Chuck Todd @chucktodd]

The stunning thing about this pile-on re: Fauci by a handful of GOP senators is the total lack of interest by these supposedly outraged senators at the person who had the power at the time. Fauci gave recommendations. Trump’s the one who had all the power. Their lack of interest in Trump’s role is an obvious tell. This is manufactured nonsense.

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Worth naming who's actually getting swept into this, since expired visas sounds abstract. Chantal Morales Rojas filed her extension paperwork before her visa lapsed, passed every DHS background check for three and a half years, and had an active work permit from the same agency that arrested her. Agents pulled her out of the jetway in Denver as a friend filmed her being marched down to the tarmac.

A Ugandan woman with sickle cell anemia and a pending asylum claim was detained in her wheelchair. A newlywed married to a US citizen was taken into custody landing in Burbank with her husband standing right there. None of these people have criminal records. All of them had pending, lawful applications already filed.

A lawyer with thirty eight years in immigration law said flatly he'd never seen this before. That's the actual headline, not the bureaucratic phrase visa overstay.

[Meghna Chakrabarti @MeghnaWBUR]

You can disagree with and dislike Dr. Fauci, but still recognize that the awful treatment he’s receiving will drive away every qualified health professional from public service - increasing the risks for everyone.

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

When ICE agents wear masks, use ordinary vehicles and don't show ID's, we risk more attacks by such criminals pretending to be ICE agents. In this case, fake ICE agents pulled over a person and assaulted the victim.

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

The Trump administration has detained a woman for 12 months despite the fact that she has been a legal permanent resident since 1995.

She was arrested by ICE in August of 2025 in her daughter's backyard while gardening.

[Jerusalem @JerusalemDemsas]

Awful awful awful allegations of abuse by Ohio Republican Congressman Max Miller.

[scary lawyerguy @scarylawyerguy]

In any other administration admitting in court 100s of grants were canceled solely based on politics would be a "-gate" level scandal w/senior officials hauled b4 Congress, but since Trump is held to a different standard (i.e. NO standard) this won't even be a story by tomorrow🙃

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

BREAKING NYT:

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states "based solely" on whether they backed Trump in the 2024 election.
https://t.co/Zo5EtEW4U2

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

CRAZY story.

- Immigration judge grants man "voluntary departure," saying he must leave by June 11.
- Man buys plane ticket for June 10, asks ICE to release him so he can board. ICE says no. He misses the plane.
- ICE says he has a deportation order because he failed to depart.

[Mother Jones @MotherJones]

The Heritage Foundation only wanted to protect women's sports when it was about trans athletes.

Not anymore. https://t.co/WTiDaKpztA

[Bobby Kogan @BBKogan]

Wow. The SNAP cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill — already estimated at the time to be the biggest in history — are turning out to be far, far, far deeper than expected (no shade at CBO, cost estimates are hard).

We’re witnessing the beginning of a hunger crisis in America.

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

This confirms what I wrote in 2024; in the very rare cases of noncitizen voting, the most common scenario is a lawfully present immigrant wrongfully told they can vote by a local official.

If the 400 number is right, that’s 0.009% of the 2024 vote in NJ; still very rare.

[News 4 Buffalo @news4buffalo]

New proposed tariffs on a variety of Canadian goods would include hockey equipment -- which could have an effect on the local hockey community. https://t.co/ZhuIB2W96P

[Jane Coaston 🏔️ @janecoaston]

It's so weird that the Roman Empire fell because of something Katie Miller was already mad about.

(Also, why the parents would be a reliable source here is a question that should be raised)

[Lauren @cabsav456]

To be fair, most of Biden's early manufacturing gains (the 625K cited here) were rebound effects from COVID. By 2024, manufacturing employment was actually falling again — despite the CHIPS Act.

Still, Biden remained net positive because the initial gains were so large.

Trump's record is different. Manufacturing has been underwater almost from day one, with no offsetting growth period. Just straight down.

The overall takeaway is that U.S. manufacturing employment is declining significantly, and Trump's tariffs are clearly accelerating, not reversing, that trend.

So for all the people who think Trump is "reshoring manufacturing in the United States" ... He's not.

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Trump has so many winning cards to play against a weak opposition but he pushing the “make prices higher” button instead

[Samuel Wells @Swells3]

Construction and housing prices just went up

[Burgess Everett @burgessev]

Trump administration announces new 50% tariff on Canada @ShelbyTalcott

https://t.co/H80I5E78Rb

[philip lewis @Phil_Lewis_]

Trump's longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made more than $100K by placing bets on Trump's speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators found https://t.co/2YOopiX7yB

[Chris Elmendorf @CSElmendorf]

Important new paper on effects of inclusionary zoning.

tl, dr: the *typical* IZ policy in CA:
1⃣causes 31% decrease in housing production;
2⃣shifts production to lower-income areas; &
3⃣produces BMR units at per-unit cost PAID BY RENTERS of ~$775k

1/6

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

The MAGA economic program is as bad as Bernie's.