Happy Friday, Wake Up Right fam! Michelle Obama launched a new podcast this week, and in its first 24 hours, it garnered just 14,000 views… More people read this newsletter every morning than care about the former First Lady’s podcast. 🤣 

• ⏰ Government shutdown deadline: Midnight

• 🪦 Dem. Congressman Raul Grijalva died at 77

• 🎂 Albert Einstein was born on this day in 1879

• 📊 Trump approval avg: 47.8% approve, 48.5% disapprove

^{Sources: TK, The National Pulse, History, RCP}

Correction: I omitted an important word in yesterday’s ‘Quick Bites’ about sex crimes in the UK. It should have said:

“UK migrants are 70% more likely to commit sex crimes than Brits.”

The EU plays stupid games; Risks winning stupid prizes

President Donald Trump threatened 200% tariffs on EU wines and spirits in response to petty tariffs enacted by the Europeans on U.S. Whiskey.

The details: In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump wrote:

• “The European Union… has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky. If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.”

Whiskey business: The E.U. announced it plans to impose a 50% tariff on American whiskey beginning on April 1 and said it was considering targeting other US spirits like gin.

Why did the EU poke the bear? They were responding to the 25% tariffs that Trump put on all steel and aluminum imported to the U.S.

Here’s the difference: Trump is imposing metal tariffs because it's in America's vital national security interest to maintain a robust domestic capacity to produce steel and aluminum in the event of war.

Zoom out: In the 1950s, the U.S. accounted for roughly 40% of worldwide steel output. In the 1970s, foreign competitors fueled by lower environmental standards and essentially slave labor began to hallow out the US steel industry. Today, we make up just 4% of steel.

The numbers: The U.S. accounts for roughly 20% of the EU's wine and champagne exports — worth $5.5 billion. The EU buys roughly 40% of U.S. whiskey — but the dollar amount is less than $1 billion.

• Steel imports: The U.S. imported roughly $33 billion worth of steel from the EU in 2024.

Big picture: This isn’t about wine or whiskey. It’s about U.S. national security. Trump campaigned on bringing steel production back to the U.S. Should we view the EU retaliating against us for doing so as an attack on U.S. national security?

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New Syrian government massacres religious minorities

More than 1,000 religious minorities in Syria — Christians, Alawites, and Druze — have been killed by government forces in recent days, despite the new ISIS-affiliated leader’s promises of religious tolerance.

The details: More than 1,300 Syrians were killed in just three days. According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, that figure is made up of roughly:

• 830 civilians

• 231 Syrian security forces

• 250 Alawite militia

Back up: In December, the Sunni Muslim rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by former ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa, toppled the long-standing Assad regime.

Glossary: Let’s get acquainted with the various groups in this story:

• Sunni Muslim: The most hardline sect of Islam, followed by ISIS and al-Qaeda

• Alawites: Part of the Shiite branch of Islam that Bashar al-Assad belonged to

• Druze: Blends Islamic and Greek philosophy with other spiritual traditions

• Christians: In Syria, they are typically Greek Orthodox

What HTS says: The newly-minted rulers of Syria claim the violence erupted when holdout members of the former Assad regime attacked them. In response, they began attacking Alawite cities as Sunni leaders in the region began calling for “Jihad” against the religious minorities.

According to humanitarian groups: Christians, Alawites, and others are being “ethnically cleansed” from the area — with entire families being slaughtered. Over the past week, countless videos have emerged online of the brutal killings.

• According to first-hand accounts, the government forces "started shooting everything," and one man in hiding, identified as Abu Ali, told reporters, “Four young people, civilians. They killed them and passed by.”

Zoom out: This comes as al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitutional declaration guaranteeing women's rights and freedom of expression.

Trump predicted this in 2016 when he was running against Hillary Clinton. He criticized the U.S. arming rebel fighters, saying: “The problem is the other side; we have no idea who they are. They probably are ISIS… We give them weapons, we give them ammunition, we give them everything. [But] maybe it’s worse than Assad… I look at Assad, and Assad, to me, looks better than the other side.”

Put another dollar in the ‘Trump was right’ jar.

What now? The UN called for action to protect the religious minorities, and the U.S. condemned the “radical Islamic terrorists” who carried out these killings.

[Source: NPR]

✅ Chuck Schumer says Democrats will vote to pass the Trump-backed continuing resolution bill, funding the government through September. Read more.

💩 A far-left San Francisco judge ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of probationary federal workers dismissed as part of government cost-cutting measures. Read more.

🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Trump for his efforts to end the hostilities in Ukraine but said he wanted lasting peace over a 30-day ceasefire. Read more.

✈️ A top 'DEI' activist was caught on voicemail allegedly offering minority air traffic controller candidates the chance to cheat in a make-or-break entry exam. Read more.

🤣 Pete Buttigieg ruled out a run for an open Democrat Senate seat in his home state, signaling he wants to run for president. Read more.

⛳️ Tiger Woods is quietly dating Vanessa Trump [Don Jr's ex-wife], according to sources who say the relationship blossomed from friendship into "something more." Read more.

🇺🇳 A UN judge, Lydia Mugambe, has been convicted of forcing a young woman to work as a slave who she “exploited and abused.” Read more.

✅ President Trump's goal is to eliminate taxes for people earning less than $150,000 per year. Read more.

🍾 President Trump threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wife and champagne from the 27 European Union countries if it did not "immediately" remove a 50% tariff on whiskey. Read more.

👏 President Trump is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in an effort to pave the way for faster mass deportations of illegal immigrants. Read more.

🌩️ A massive storm crossing 17 U.S. states threatens tornadoes in the Mississippi Valley, Plains blizzards, and wildfire risks, impacting over 100 million Americans. Read more.

👿 An illegal alien in Long Island beat his 2-month-old daughter to death because he didn’t believe the baby was his. Read more.

💩 Judge Tanya Chutkan — who gave hundreds of J6ers tough prison sentences and presided over Trump’s J6 case — ordered DOGE to release internal records and justify its decision to prune federal agencies, eliminate contracts, and terminate government jobs. Read more.

🎥 Transgender Congressman calls Republicans "weird" and "bizarre." Watch.

🎥 LOL, Trump says Canada can keep their national anthem when it becomes the 51st state. Watch.

🎥 American Airlines plane catches fire at Denver Airport, passengers forced to stand on wing. Watch.

🎥 Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary educates CNN host on Trump tariffs. Watch.

🎥 Is this 12-on-1 attack on a 12-year-old Baltimore boy a hate crime? Police say no. Watch.

🎥 Anti-Israel Jewish protestors flood Trump Tower in NYC to protest the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil. Watch.

🎥 Enjoy Seb Gorka SMASH CNN's Jake Tapper and the Washington Post on live TV. Watch.

🎥 Low IQ Rep. Maxine Waters says Trump is "creating a civil war." Watch.

🎥 Michelle Obama spills the family secrets in her new podcast. Watch.

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