A look at the universities with federal funding targeted by the Trump administration

A look at the universities with federal funding targeted by the Trump administration

By MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press

Harvard University is the latest in a growing list of higher education institutions that had its federal funding targeted by the government in order to comply with the Trump administration’s political agenda.

The series of threats — and subsequent pauses in funding — to some of the top U.S. universities have become an unprecedented tool for the administration to exert influence on college campuses. Six of the seven universities impacted are Ivy League schools.

President Donald Trump vowed to pursue these federal cuts on the campaign trail last year, saying he would focus on schools that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.” Public school systems are targets for cuts too.

Here’s a look at which universities have been pressured by the administration’s funding cuts so far.

Harvard University

The administration announced its antisemitism task force would conduct a “ comprehensive review ” of the Massachusetts university on March 31. The government was set to review nearly $9 billion of federal grants and contracts.

Harvard is among universities across the country where pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campus amid the war in Gaza last year. Republican officials have since heavily scrutinized those universities, and several Ivy League presidents testified before Congress to discuss antisemitism allegations.

The administration issued its list of demands to Harvard in a letter on April 3. The demands included a ban on face masks, limitations on campus protests and a review of academic departments’ biases.

About a week later, those demands were expanded to include leadership reforms, admission policy changes and stopping the university’s recognition of certain student organizations.

Then, on Monday, Harvard President Alan Gerber refused to comply, saying in a letter that the university “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

Hours later, the administration announced it froze more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to the university.

Cornell University

The White House announced last week that it froze more than $1 billion of Cornell’s federal funding. The administration said the freeze came as it investigated alleged civil rights violations at the university.

The New York university was among a group of more than 60 universities that received a letter from the Education Department on March 10 urging them to take steps to protect Jewish students or else face “potential enforcement actions.”

The Defense Department issued more than 75 stop-work orders for research, Cornell said in a statement, but that the federal government hadn’t confirmed if the total funding freeze totaled $1 billion.

Northwestern University

Like Cornell, Northwestern also saw a halt in some of its federal funding last week. The amount was about $790 million, according to the Trump administration.

The Illinois university did not receive an official message from the White House on the freeze despite its cooperation with civil rights investigations, according to Northwestern officials at the time.

University spokesperson Jon Yates said Northwestern’s scientific research was “at jeopardy” because of the freeze — a widespread issue for universities facing research cuts from the National Institutes of Health.

Brown University

The Trump administration was anticipated to pause federal grants and contracts at Brown University because of the Rhode Island school’s response to alleged antisemitism on campus, according to a White House official on April 3.

The total was expected to be about $510 million in funding, according to the official.

Princeton University

Dozens of research grants were suspended at Princeton University without a clear rationale, according to an April 1 campus message from university president Christopher Eisgruber. The grants came from federal agencies such as the Department of Energy, NASA and the Defense Department.

Before the funding pause, Eisgruber had expressed his opposition to Trump’s threatened cuts at Columbia University in an essay in The Atlantic magazine. He called the administration’s move a “radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research.”

University of Pennsylvania

Unlike the other targeted universities, the University of Pennsylvania saw funding cuts because of a transgender athlete who competed in Penn’s swimming program, according to the Trump administration.

After a Feb. 5 executive order barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports, the Education Department launched an investigation a day later into athletics programs at Penn and San Jose State University. The Penn investigation centered on Lia Thomas, who is the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title and graduated from the university in 2022.

Over a month later, the White House announced the suspension of about $175 million in federal funding from the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. The administration said the halt in funding on March 19 came after a separate discretionary federal money review.

The university said at the time that it wasn’t directly notified of the action.

Columbia University

Columbia University was the first major institution that had its funding singled out by the Trump administration.

At first, federal agencies declared they were considering stop-work orders for about $51 million of contracts with Columbia on March 3. Trump had also said on social media that schools that allow “illegal protests” would see funding cuts.

Last year, Columbia student protesters started a wave of campus demonstrations against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The protests led to tense faceoffs with police at the New York City university and the arrests of more than 100 demonstrators.

University leadership faced scathing condemnations from Republicans on the protests’ proliferation, leading former president Minouche Shafik to step down. Columbia also began investigating pro-Palestinian student activists, such as Mahmoud Khalil, who was later arrested and is at threat of deportation.

On March 7, the Trump administration cancelled about $400 million of Columbia’s federal funding. Columbia took some action afterward, such as expelling and suspending some student protesters who occupied a campus building during demonstrations.

The university announced March 21 that it had agreed to make even more sweeping policy changes that the Trump administration had demanded.

The changes included placing the Middle East studies department under supervision, hiring new safety personnel who can make arrests, and banning face masks “for the purposes of concealing one’s identity.” The university also agreed to appoint a senior provost tasked with reviewing several international studies departments’ leadership and curriculum.

Armstrong resigned from her post the following week. The decision was met with dissatisfaction among some faculty members and a lawsuit against the cuts.

But following Harvard’s defiance of the Trump administration’s demands, Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, had a new message Monday. She said that while she agrees with some of the administration’s requests, the university would reject “heavy-handed orchestration” that would “require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy as an educational institution.”

Discussions were still ongoing between the federal government and Columbia as of Monday, according to Shipman’s campus letter.

Easter Brunch Punch

Easter Brunch Punch

Easter Brunch Punch

Photo by Getty Images

Easter Brunch Punch Recipe from Southern Living

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes – 2 hours

Serving size: 12 – 15 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 (52-oz.) bottle refrigerated strawberry lemonade, such as Simply Lemonade brand 
  • 1 lb. fresh or frozen rhubarb, trimmed and cut into large chunks
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 (1-liter) bottle club soda, chilled
  • Garnishes: strawberries, mint sprigs, and lemon slices

Directions

  1. Prepare ice ring (optional):The night before you plan to serve the punch, freeze roughly a 1/3 to 1/2 of the strawberry lemonade in one standard or a few mini Bundt pans. (This step makes an extra pretty presentation, and prevents the punch from getting watered down. But if you’d rather skip it, just save all of the strawberry lemonade for step 3, and serve the punch with a bucket of regular ice).
  2. Make rhubarb syrup:Stir together the rhubarb, sugar, and 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Simmer until rhubarb is completely broken down, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool, strain, and chill until ready to use. (You can make and chill the simple syrup overnight if desired).
  3. Make punch:Just before serving, combine the remaining strawberry lemonade, club soda, and about half of the rhubarb simple syrup in a punch bowl. Taste it for sweetness and add more syrup if desired.
  4. Add garnishes:Add the strawberry lemonade ice rings to the punch bowl, if using. Garnish with strawberries, mint sprigs, and lemon slices.
El Salvador President Bukele says he won’t be releasing a Maryland man back to the US

El Salvador President Bukele says he won’t be releasing a Maryland man back to the US

By SEUNG MIN KIM and MARCOS ALEMÁN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ‘s top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they have no basis for the small Central American nation to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month. Bukele called the idea “preposterous” even though the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return.

Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course” he would not release him back to U.S. soil.

“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele, seated alongside Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would “facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

But “first and foremost, he was illegally in our country, and he had been illegally in our country,” she said. “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”

The refusal of both countries to allow the return of Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation over fears of gang persecution, is intensifying the battle over the Maryland resident’s future. It has also played out in contentious court filings, with repeated refusals from the government to tell a judge what it plans to do, if anything, to repatriate him.

The judge handling the case, Paula Xinis, is now considering whether to grant a request from the man’s legal team to compel the government to explain why it should not be held in contempt.

The fight over Abrego Garcia also underscores how critical El Salvador has been as a linchpin of the U.S. administration’s mass deportation operation.

How Bukele is helping with Trump’s immigration crackdown

Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. That prison is part of Bukele’s broader effort to crack down on the country’s powerful street gangs, which has put 84,000 people behind bars and made Bukele extremely popular at home.

“I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say they have one hell of a president,” Trump said as he greeted Bukele, who was wearing a black mock turtleneck sans tie.

Bukele struck a deal under which the U.S. will pay about $6 million for El Salvador to imprison the Venezuelan immigrants for a year.

But Democrats have raised alarm about the treatment of Abrego Garcia and other migrants who may be wrongfully detained in El Salvador. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is pushing for a meeting with Bukele while he is in Washington to discuss Abrego Garcia’s potential return, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the administration to release Abrego Garcia and others “with no credible criminal record” who were deported to the maximum-security prison.

“Disregarding the rule of law, ignoring unanimous rulings by the Supreme Court and subjecting individuals to detention and deportation without due process makes us less safe as a country,” Shaheen said.

Though other judges had ruled against the Trump administration, this month the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law, to deport the immigrants. The justices did insist that the immigrants get a court hearing before being removed from the U.S. Over the weekend, 10 more people who the administration claims are members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs arrived in El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.

Trump wants to expand his deportation plans

The president has said openly that he would also favor El Salvador taking custody of American citizens who have committed violent crimes, a view he repeated Monday.

“We have bad ones too, and I’m all for it because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security,” Trump said during the meeting. “And we have a huge prison population.” It is unclear how lawful U.S. citizens could be deported elsewhere in the world.

Before the press entered the Oval Office, Trump said in a video posted on social media by Bukele that he wanted to send “homegrowns” to be incarcerated in El Salvador, and added that “you’ve got to build five more places,” suggesting Bukele doesn’t have enough prison capacity for all of the U.S. citizens that Trump would like to send there.

The high court weighs in, and the administration response

The Supreme Court has called for the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia.

Trump indicated over the weekend that he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. if the high court’s justices said to bring him back, saying “I have great respect for the Supreme Court.” But the tone from top administration officials was sharply different on Monday,

“He’s a citizen of El Salvador,” said Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff. “So it’s very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”

Bondi asserted that two immigration court judges — who are under Justice Department purview — found that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, although the man’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence that he was affiliated with MS-13 or any other gang. The allegation is based on a confidential informant’s claim in 2019 that Abrego Garcia was a member of a chapter in New York, where he has never lived.

How Bukele is viewed back home

While Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has popular support, the country has lived under a state of emergency that suspends some basic rights for three years. He built the massive prison, located just outside San Salvador in the town of Tecoluca, to hold those accused of gang affiliation under his crackdown.

Part of his offer to receive the Venezuelans there was that the U.S. also send back some Salvadoran gang leaders. In February, his ambassador to the U.S., Milena Mayorga, said on a radio program that having gang leaders face justice in El Salvador was “an issue of honor.”

Populists who have successfully crafted their images through media, Bukele and Trump are of different generations but display similar tendencies in how they relate to the press, political opposition and justice systems in their respective countries.

The Trump-Bukele relationship

Bukele came to power in the middle of Trump’s first term and had a straightforward relationship with the U.S. leader. Trump was most concerned with immigration and, under Bukele, the number of Salvadorans heading for the U.S. border declined.

Bukele’s relationship with the U.S. grew more complicated at the start of the Biden administration, which was openly critical of some of his antidemocratic actions. Trump has also shown some irritation with Bukele in the past, accusing El Salvador of lowering its crime rate by sending people to the U.S.

“He’s just, ‘we’re working with our people that are causing problems and crime,’” Trump said of Bukele at a campaign rally last year. “He’s not working with them. He’s dumping them in the United States and their crime rate, their murder rate, is down 72%.”

Just before Bukele’s arrival in Washington, the State Department updated its travel advisory for El Salvador to Level 1, which is for countries that are considered the safest to visit for U.S. citizens. The advisory notes that gang activity, and the accompanying murders and other violent crimes, has declined in the past three years.

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Alemán reported from San Salvador, El Salvador. Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Chris Megerian in Washington, and Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed reporting.

Supporters rally for Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs amid legal battle

Supporters rally for Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs amid legal battle

RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) – Supporters of Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs held a rally near the Legislative Building to criticize the ongoing legal effort to overturn Riggs’ less than 800 vote lead over Jefferson Griffin. Riggs spoke at the rally, criticizing the ongoing legal battle over overseas and military votes.

“Those who raise their hand and get first in line to serve our country should not now be first in line to have their votes tossed.,” said Riggs.

The justices ruled that about 5,000 military and overseas voters must prove their identity within 30 days or risk having their ballots invalidated. A vast majority of 60,000 votes were allowed to stand. Riggs says she will take the issue to Federal Court.

“There are thousands of men and women overseas who voted in 2024 who received their ballots, obeyed the instructions on the ballots, and submitted their ballots on time. And yet, five months after the vote, which he lost, Jefferson Griffin is trying to politicize and throw out their votes.,” said Air Force veteran Alex Rich, who voted when he was stationed far from home.

However, a majority of Republican justices minimized the court’s discovery that additional ballots from two other categories that Griffin contested were wrongly included in the tally. The court’s prevailing order claims that some of these votes — possibly thousands who live overseas or serve in the military — still have the opportunity to turn in a photo identification or ID exception form for their vote to remain in the court.

“It is no more acceptable to only disenfranchise a few thousand people, instead of 65,000 people, right?” said Riggs.

State Sen. Val Applewhite represents the area that includes Fort Bragg and other installations and says attacks on military votes are not fair.

“Stand with our troops, stand with democracy, and let’s remind them that when you mess with our votes, their votes, you mess with all of us.,” said Applewhite.

Stocks rally worldwide after Trump eases some of his tariffs on electronics, for now

Stocks rally worldwide after Trump eases some of his tariffs on electronics, for now

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising worldwide Monday after President Donald Trump relaxed some of his tariffs, for now at least, and as stress from within the U.S. bond market seems to be easing.

The S&P 500 was 0.5% higher in midday trading, though trading is still shaky, and it gave back most of its bigger, early gain of 1.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 154 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.

Apple and other technology companies helped lift Wall Street after Trump said he was exempting smartphones, computers and some other electronics from some of his stiff tariffs, which could ultimately more than double prices for U.S. customers of many goods coming from China. Such an exemption should help U.S. importers, which would not have to choose between passing on the higher costs to their customers or taking a hit to their own profits.

Apple climbed 2.1%, and Dell Technologies rose 3.4%.

Stock markets in other countries likewise bounced following the cooldown in Trump’s trade war with China, the world’s second-largest economy. Indexes climbed 2.3% in France, 2.6% in Germany, 1.2% in Japan and 1% in South Korea.

But the relief may prove fleeting, helping to lead to Monday morning’s swings. Trump’s tariff rollout broadly has been full of fits and starts, and officials in his administration said this most recent exemption on electronics is only temporary.

That could keep uncertainty high for companies, which are trying to make long-term plans when conditions seem to change by the day. Such uncertainty sent the U.S. stock market last week to chaotic and historic swings, as investors struggled to catch up with Trump’s moves on tariffs, which could ultimately lead to a recession if not reduced.

China’s commerce ministry nevertheless welcomed the change in a Sunday statement as a small step even as it called for the U.S. to completely cancel the rest of its tariffs. China’s leader Xi Jinping on Monday said no one wins in a trade war as he kicked off a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia, hoping to present China as a force for stability in contrast with Trump’s frenetic moves on tariffs.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs rose 0.9% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. It joined other big banks in doing so, such as JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Perhaps more encouragingly for Wall Street, the bond market was also showing some signs of increasing calm. Treasury yields eased following their sudden and scary rise last week, which seemed to rattle not only investors but also Trump.

Treasury yields usually drop when fear is high in the market because U.S. government bonds have historically been seen as some of the world’s safest investments, if not the safest. But last week, yields rose sharply for Treasury bonds in an usual move. The value of the U.S. dollar also fell against other currencies in another move suggesting investors may no longer see the United States as the best place to keep their cash during moments of stress.

Trump noted the moves in the bond market, which suggested investors “were getting a little queasy,” when he announced a 90-day pause on many of his tariffs last week.

That Trump acted only after the bond market made its scary move, but not after U.S. stock market began trembling, “reveals this administration’s Achilles’ heel,” according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased back to 4.40%. It had jumped to 4.48% on Friday from 4.01% the week before. It got an encouraging update in the morning on expectations for inflation among U.S. consumers.

While U.S. households raised their expectations for inflation in the year ahead, their expectations for inflation three and five years in the future were either unchanged or lower, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

That’s potentially good news for the Federal Reserve, which hates to see fast-rising expectations for longer-term inflation. Such expectations could kick off a feedback loop that drives behavior among consumers that only worsens inflation.

The value of the U.S. dollar, though, remained under pressure. It slipped against the euro and Japanese yen, while rising a bit against the Canadian dollar.

In China, stock indexes rose 2.4% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai after the government reported that China’s exports surged 12.4% in March from a year earlier in a last-minute flurry of activity as companies rushed to beat increases in U.S. tariffs imposed by Trump.

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AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

Blue Origin launches an all-female celebrity crew with Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez

Blue Origin launches an all-female celebrity crew with Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched his fiancee Lauren Sanchez into space Monday with an all-female celebrity crew that included Katy Perry and Gayle King.

It was the latest wave in space tourism, where more of the rich and famous than ever before — or lucky and well-connected — can enter the zero-gravity realm traditionally dominated by professional astronauts.

The New Shepard rocket blasted off on the quick up-and-down trip from West Texas. The fringes of space beckoned 66 miles (107 kilometers) up and provided a few precious minutes of weightlessness.

Blue Origin has launched Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez into space with an all-female celebrity crew that included Katy Perry and Gayle King. (AP Video)

Sanchez, a helicopter pilot and former TV journalist, invited the others along for the 10-minute, fully automated flight, packing on the star power with singer-songwriter Perry and “CBS Mornings” co-host King. Moved by the views of Earth below, Perry said she couldn’t resist singing “What a Wonderful World” in space.

Also sharing the ride were film producer Kerianne Flynn; Aisha Bowe, a former NASA engineer who started her own companies to promote science education; and Amanda Nguyen, a scientist who studied planets around other stars and now advocates for survivors of sexual violence.

Blue Origin declined to say how much the flight cost or who paid what. The trip came two months before Sanchez and Bezos marry in Venice.

It was the 11th human spaceflight for the Washington state-based company, founded by Bezos in 2000 after making a fortune with Amazon. Bezos strapped in for Blue Origin’s first space tourist flight in 2021 and accompanied the latest crew to the pad.

The celebrity launch was the nation’s first spaceflight where women filled each seat. The only other all-female crew in 64 years of human spaceflight was back in 1963. That’s when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched by herself, becoming the first woman in space. Tereshkova spent three days off the planet.

Even after the latest launch, women represent barely 15% of the more than 700 people who have traveled into space. Sanchez said she deliberately chose women to launch with her, each of them eager to inspire both the young and old to dream big, and even commissioned special flight suits.

“It’s an important moment for the future of commercial space travel and for humanity in general and for women all around,” Perry told The Associated Press last week.

The launch brought out VIPs to West Texas including Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and other members of the Kardashian family, and several women who previously have flown on private flights. Winfrey, a close friend of King, wiped away tears when the capsule reached space and the passengers were heard marveling at the moon and shouting with joy.

As the women were buckling up for the ride back, Perry broke into song. Despite urging by her crewmates, she resisted singing “Roar” or her other tunes and instead chose “What a Wonderful World.”

“It’s not about me. It’s not about singing my songs,” she said following the flight. “It’s about a collective energy in there. It’s about us.”

Bezos opened the capsule’s hatch minutes after touchdown, embracing Sanchez, the first one out. As they emerged, Perry and King kneeled and kissed the ground. “Oh my God, that was amazing,” said King, who considers herself an anxious airplane flyer.

This wasn’t the first Blue Origin launch with marquee names.

“Star Trek” actor William Shatner caught a lift to space with Blue Origin in 2021 at age 90, soon after Bezos’ inaugural trip. He was followed by former New York Giants defensive end and TV host Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, for whom the rocket is named. Two aviation pioneers who missed out on space when they were younger — Wally Funk and Ed Dwight — also rocketed away at ages 82 and 90, respectively.

Most of Blue Origin’s passengers — 58 counting the latest launch — have been business or science types, TV hosts or YouTubers. Ticket prices are not disclosed.

The Russian Space Agency also has launched its share of space tourists, beginning with a California financier in 2001. Two decades later, a Russian actress filmed aboard the International Space Station.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX also sells multi-day trips to private customers. SpaceX’s first client to fly, billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman already has launched twice and performed the first private spacewalk. He’s now set to become NASA’s next administrator if confirmed by the Senate.

Chinese-born bitcoin investor Chun Wang just returned from the first spaceflight to carry people over the north and south poles. Wang picked up the whole SpaceX tab for himself and three polar explorers for an undisclosed sum.

“In this exciting new era of commercial spaceflight, the dream of becoming an astronaut is no longer limited to a select few,” Wang said via X last week.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

So your home’s not social-media perfect? How to get over ‘house shame’ and invite people in

So your home’s not social-media perfect? How to get over ‘house shame’ and invite people in

By LEANNE ITALIE AP Lifestyles Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Robbie Randolph is a real estate agent and interior designer for the rich, yet even he’s not immune from the anxiety of “house shame.”

That’s the judged, bullied, defeated feeling you can get when Pinterest-perfect syndrome takes over, either in our own minds thanks to social media or fed by the side eye of a friend with impeccable digs.

House shame can make you reluctant to invite people over, and in some cases lead to isolation and despair.

“House shaming is actually how designers kind of get business,” Randolph said. “A client will go over to another home that’s professionally designed and they’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, my house isn’t that nice.’ They then seek out an interior designer.”

Randolph, in Greenville, South Carolina, said interior designers themselves are just as vulnerable. So are exhausted parents with young children, people who just don’t love to clean, those who can’t afford home updates, or folks who really have a lot of books and/or love collectibles.

“I’ll do an Instagram post of an amazing, immaculately decorated house and I go, ‘Wow, my house stinks,'” said Randolph. “And everyone walks into my home and tells me how amazing it is. At the end of the day, I’m still human and I still get trapped by the devil of comparison.”

Remembering one’s humanity in a world where true perfection is elusive goes a long way, he and other experts noted.

The scary side of house shame

Not wanting to entertain at home can simply mean spending time together elsewhere, in restaurants, at the theater or in the homes of others, for instance. But it can also bring on hoarding or other traumatizing behaviors like losing the will to clean.

“I have a friend who refuses to have people over because she’s so ashamed of her house,” Randolph said.

His friend didn’t have the money or the will to fix up the house after her abusive husband moved out.

“I think house shaming is about comparison, but it can also be about a person’s own struggles,” he said.

Speaking of Martha Stewart …

Barbara Fight was a TV producer for Martha Stewart for 12 years before going into home organizing in New York. She said house shame got way worse with the rise of social media and its idealized depictions of homes most people can’t afford or otherwise will never have.

But there are lots of easy, inexpensive ways people can help themselves feel better about their living spaces if they so choose.

The issue is often just too much stuff. She sees a lot of homes with row upon overlapping row of framed photos in ancient (not in a good way) frames. She suggests paring them down to the bare minimum and stashing the rest in a decorative box that can be pulled out for perusal.

Like Randolph, Fight has seen it all: People overloaded with things they’ve inherited from dead relatives. A young woman who wouldn’t bring her fiancé to her parents’ house, “because it’s such a mess.”

Fight suggests: “Take away a third of what’s out.” One client, she said, “had this long, narrow, beautiful table in her living room just filled with stuff. It was the first thing you saw when you walked in. I said to her, ‘It’s going to take me 15 minutes to make this look Instagram-worthy.’ About five pieces stayed on there. About 10 things were thrown out, and we found a different place for the rest.”

Does changing your home feel overwhelming?

Jamila Musayeva is the author of “The Art of Entertaining at Home” and hosts a lifestyle YouTube channel with over 1 million subscribers. She’s also an etiquette coach.

“A home doesn’t have to be perfect to be welcoming,” she said. “It simply has to feel cared for. If you’re worried about how your space might be perceived, start by focusing on what you can control.”

That could mean freshening up an entrance with a lit candle and a small flower arrangement to shift the mood for guests.

“Think ahead about the rooms your guests will actually see. Give those areas some attention rather than overwhelming yourself with the whole house. A clean bathroom with a fresh hand towel, good lighting in the living room and somewhere cozy to sit go much further than expensive décor,” Musayeva said.

Where the memories are made

Wendy Trunz, co-owner of the Long Island home organizing company Jane’s Addiction Organization, said she grew up in the smallest house in her family’s circle of friends and family. Now, with a husband and two kids, she lives in the smallest house among her neighbors and loved ones.

“My mom’s door was always open. Their table always had an extra seat. You just knocked and came in, and my mom just believed the more the merrier, this is where the memories are made and don’t mind the mess. And there’s something great about that,” she said.

Trunz notes that along with social media, the COVID pandemic contributed to house shame by sending millions of people home.

“Even now, five years later, we’re going in and people are still not eating at their dining room tables and not having people over,” she said. “Their husband is still sitting there working and it’s covered with stuff. We come in and clear that table and they call us in tears because for the first time they ate as a family around their dining room table again and not at the counter. It’s amazing. It’s amazing.”

Trunz had a easy solution for a client who had a stuffed front hall closet and felt she couldn’t accommodate the coats of guests.

“We just bought them a rolling rack, as if it’s a fancy thing. Nobody’s going to open the closet,” she said.

And if someone does house-shame you, there’s another easy solution, she said. One of her best friends is a teacher who invited teacher friends over for a meal and made her favorite tuna fish, choosing to focus on the magic of gathering rather than the toil of preparation.

“And one person in the group kept pointing out the fact that she only had one bathroom, and how did she live like that. I asked my friend, ‘What are you going to do about that?’ And she said, ‘You just decide not to have that person over.’ It can be that simple.”

Grant Magdanz, who uses Instagram to chronicle Los Angeles life living with his grandmother, has racked up about half a million likes for a video he posted last September showing off their decades-old furniture, mismatched cups and cluttered dining table.

“Not everyone’s life is themed, curated and made for social media,” a scroll on the video said. “In fact, most people’s aren’t. And we’re happy all the same.”

Prune Cake

Prune Cake

Prune Cake

Prune cake cooling down on a dish.
Photo by Getty Images

Prune cake recipe originally published in WPTF’s “Ask Your Neighbor” Cookbook.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Bake time: 25 minutes

Serving size: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 20 prunes
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp allspice
Prunes for Prune Cake sitting in a basket.
Photo by Getty Images

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325°F and grease a tube pan.
  2. Boil the prunes in water, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, approximately 10-15 minutes.
  3. Once the prunes are done, rinse them in cold water to cool.
  4. Cut the prunes into small pieces.
  5. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup Wesson oil and 1 cup sugar. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
  6. In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon allspice. Sift this mixture 3 times.
  7. In another bowl, combine 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
  8. Gradually add the buttermilk mixture and the dry mixture to the egg mixture, alternating between each.
  9. Fold in the cut-up prunes.
  10. Pour the batter into the prepared tube pan.
  11. Bake at 325°F for approximately 45 minutes or until done.
  12. Pour some buttermilk icing over the prune cake while it is still hot.
Jars with spices and prunes for Prune Cake
Photo by Getty Images
Trump team tries to project confidence and calm after his tariff moves rattled markets

Trump team tries to project confidence and calm after his tariff moves rattled markets

By BILL BARROW Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Trump administration officials were out in force across the television networks Sunday defending President Donald Trump’s economic policies after another week of reeling markets that saw the Republican administration reverse course on some of its steepest tariffs.

Trump, meanwhile, said on his social media platform that there ultimately will be no exemptions for his sweeping tariff agenda, disputing characterizations that he has granted tariff exceptions for certain electronics, including smart phones, whose production is concentrated in China. Rather, Trump said, “those products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”

White House advisers and Cabinet members tried to project confidence and calm amid Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs on imported goods from around the world. But their explanations about the overall agenda, coupled with Trump’s latest statements, also reflected shifting narratives from a president who, as a candidate in 2024, promised an immediate economic boost and lower prices but now asks American businesses and consumers for patience.

A week ago, Trump’s team stood by his promise to leave the impending tariffs in place without exceptions. They used their latest news show appearances to defend his move to ratchet back to a 10% universal tariff for most nations except China (145%), while seeming to grant exemptions for certain electronics like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and semiconductor chips.

Here are the highlights of what Trump lieutenants said last week vs. Sunday:

There are varying answers on the purpose of the tariffs

Long before launching his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump bemoaned the offshoring of U.S. manufacturing. His promise is to reindustrialize the United States and eliminate trade deficits with other countries.

LAST WEEK

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” played up national security. “You’ve got to realize this is a national security issue,” he said, raising the worst-case scenarios of what could happen if the U.S. were involved in a war.

“We don’t make medicine in this country anymore. We don’t make ships. We don’t have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right?” he said.

SUNDAY

Lutnick stuck to that national security framing, but White House trade adviser Peter Navarro focused more on the import taxes being leverage in the bigger economic puzzle.

“The world cheats us. They’ve been cheating us for decades,” Navarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He cited practices such as dumping products at unfairly low prices, currency manipulation and barriers to U.S. auto and agricultural products entering foreign markets.

Navarro insisted the tariffs would yield broader bilateral trade deals to address all those issues. But he also relied on a separate justification when discussing China: the illicit drug trade.

“China has killed over a million people with their fentanyl,” he said.

Speaking before Trump’s Truth Social post disputing the notion of exemptions, Lutnick alluded to that coming policy. “They’re going to have a special focus-type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

The status of negotiations with other nations, including China, remains fuzzy

LAST WEEK

With the higher rates set to be collected beginning April 9, administration officials argued that other countries would rush to the negotiating table.

“I’ve heard that there are negotiations ongoing and that there are a number of offers,” Kevin Hassett, director of the White House Economic Council, told ABC. He claimed that “more than 50 countries (were) reaching out,” though he did not name any.

SUNDAY

Navarro named the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Israel as among the nations in active negotiations with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Lutnick and other officials.

Greer said on CBS that his goal was “to get meaningful deals before 90 days” –- the duration of Trump’s pause -– “and I think we’re going to be there with several countries in the next few weeks.”

Talks with China have not begun, he said. “We expect to have a conversation with them,” he said, emphasizing it would be between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump took an aggressive tone himself Sunday in his social media post, saying “we will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China, which will do everything within its power to disrespect the American People.”

Navarro was not as specific about Beijing. “We have opened up our invitation to them,” he said. Lutnick characterized the outreach as “soft entrees … through intermediaries.”

Pressed on whether there is any meaningful back and forth, Navarro said, “The president has a very good relationship with President Xi.”

Then he proceeded to criticize several China’s polices and trade practices.

The pitches are different, but confidence is constant

LAST WEEK

Navarro was bullish even after U.S. and global trading markets suffered trillions of dollars in losses.

“The first rule, particularly for the smaller investors out there, you can’t lose money unless you sell. And, right now, the smart strategy is not to panic,” he said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

SUNDAY

Navarro’s optimism did not waver despite another net-loss week for securities markets and rocky bond markets. “So, this is unfolding exactly like we thought it would in a dominant scenario,” he said.

Others confronted some of the more complex realities of trying to achieve Trump’s goal of restoring a bygone era of U.S. manufacturing.

Lutnick suggested the focus is on returning high-tech jobs, while sidestepping questions about lower-skilled manufacturing of goods such as shoes that could mean higher prices because of higher wages for U.S. workers. But some of that high-tech production is what Trump has, for now, exempted from the tariffs that he and his advisers frame as leverage for forcing companies to open U.S. facilities.

Hassett did acknowledge widespread angst.

“The survey data has been showing that people are anxious about the changes a little bit,” he said, before steering his answer to employment rates. “The hard data,” he said, “has been really, really strong.”

Rory McIlroy wins Masters playoff to complete the career Grand Slam

Rory McIlroy wins Masters playoff to complete the career Grand Slam

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The closer Rory McIlroy came to fulfilling his lifetime dream — winning the Masters — the more it kept slipping away. Sunday at Augusta National felt like his last 11 years in the majors, blunders mixed in with sheer brilliance.

A two-shot lead gone in two holes. A four-shot lead gone in three holes with a shocker of a mistake. A 5-foot putt on the final hole to win narrowly missed.

And then McIlroy turned what could have been another major collapse into his grandest moment of all when he hit wedge to 3 feet for birdie in a sudden-death playoff against Justin Rose to become — finally — a Masters champion and take his place in golf history as the sixth player with the career Grand Slam.

“There were points in my career where I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders,” McIlroy said, that Masters green jacket looking like a perfect fit. “But I didn’t make it easy today. I certainly didn’t make it easy. I was nervous.

“It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”

The reward was greater than he imagined, and it showed. He rapped in that final putt, raised both arms in the air and let the putter fall behind him. He covered his head, dropped to his knees, and before long his forehead was on the green as his chest heaved with emotion.

That was 11 years of pent-up emotion from his last major, when he began to carry the burden of getting the final leg of the Grand Slam. It was 14 years of remembering the time he wasted a four-shot lead with an 80 on the final day as a 21-year-old.

“I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” he said.

The thought could have easily crossed his mind during the final round.

What could have been a coronation for McIlroy along the back nine turned into a heart-racing, lead-changing, jaw-dropping finish at golf’s greatest theater that ended with McIlroy sobbing with joy and disbelief.

It ended with more heartache for Rose, who lost to Sergio Garcia in a playoff in 2017 and forced this one with a clutch 20-foot birdie on the 18th hole for a 6-under 66. He wound up joining Ben Hogan as the only players to lose twice in playoffs at Augusta National.

“It’s the kind of putt you dream about as a kid, and to have it and hole it, it was a special feeling,” Rose said. “And unfortunately, the playoff, they always end so quickly. If you’re not the guy to hit the great shot or hole the great putt, it’s over. But not really anything I could have done more today.”

The joy on McIlroy’s face never left him from the time that putt dropped — on the green, in Butler Cabin when defending champion Scottie Scheffler first helped him into the green jacket, and during the trophy presentation on the 18th green.

“My dreams have been made today,” McIlroy said.

Moments later, speaking to 4-year-old daughter Poppy, he told her: “Never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up on your dreams.”

This was shaping up as another horror show for McIlroy, who in 2011 lost a four-shot lead on the final day with a 43 on the back nine, a highlight reel that now can start collecting dust.

“I didn’t make it easy today,” McIlroy said.

Right when it looked as though he would throw away another major, McIlroy delivered two majestic shots when nothing less would do, two birdies that sent him to the 18th hole with a one-shot lead.

That still wasn’t enough. He hit a wedge into the bunker and wound up missing a 5-foot par putt for a 1-over 73 and the first Masters playoff in eight years.

Faced with more failure, McIlroy responded with another booming drive, and this wedge bounced onto the slope of the top shelf with enough spin to trickle down toward the hole, closer and closer, until it stopped 3 feet away.

And when Rose missed from 15 feet, McIlroy finally sealed it.

“I just think all week how I responded to setbacks, that’s what I’ll take from this week,” McIlroy said, though he could have been speaking for the last decade. “Couldn’t be more proud I myself for that and being able to back bounce when I needed to.”

McIlroy went 11 long years without any major, knowing the Masters green jacket was all that kept him from joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the only winners of golf’s four professional majors.

Nicklaus and Player spoke on Thursday how they thought this was his time. Woods was among those to congratulate McIlroy and welcome him to the club.

So wild was this Sunday at Augusta National that McIlroy set a Masters record as the first champion to make four double bogeys — two in the first round that put him seven shots behind, two in the final round that turned this into a thriller.

U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who beat McIlroy at Pinehurst No. 2 last June, had the lead after two holes when McIlroy opened with a double bogey. DeChambeau crashed out with a pair of three-putts and two shots into the water on the back nine, closing with a 75.

Ludvig Aberg, a runner-up in his Masters debut a year ago, suddenly had a share of the lead when McIlroy fell apart on the middle of the back nine. He missed a birdie putt from the fringe to take the lead, then finished bogey-triple bogey.

McIlroy and Rose finished at 11-under 277, two shots ahead of former Masters champion Patrick Reed (69). Scheffler, trying to win the Masters for the third time in four years, never got anything going this week and still shot 69 to finish fourth.

Rose had every reason to believe he threw away his chances on Saturday with a 75 that put him seven shots behind, and then two bogeys on the front nine. Even as he steadied himself, he was four shots back and running out of time.

He did his part in a 10-birdie round and that dynamic birdie putt to cap it off.

McIlroy did his part, too.

Nothing was more shocking than the 13th. McIlroy played it safe, leaving himself a big target from 82 yards away and a lob wedge. He missed his mark by some 20 yards, the ball disappearing into the tributary of Rae’s Creek and leading to double bogey.

Rose was on the par-3 16th and hit his tee shot to 4 feet for birdie, and suddenly they were tied. Then, McIlroy hit a weak drive to the right and was blocked by pines. He didn’t reach the green, didn’t make the par putt and no longer had the lead.

But he was resilient as ever — he’s been like that his entire career. Seemingly in trouble left of the 15th fairway, McIlroy hit 7-iron around the trees and onto the green to 6 feet.

He missed the eagle putt — the birdie still helped him regain a share of the lead. Two holes later, facing a semi-blind shot, he drilled 8-iron and chased after it, urging it to “Go! Go! Go! Go!” And it did, barely clearing the bunker and rolling out to 2 feet for birdie and a one-shot lead.

Turns out that wasn’t enough, either. He was 5 feet away from victory and badly missed the putt, leaving him more work to do — another chance to fail.

Not this time. The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland never wavered in what he came to Augusta National to do. He leaves with a green jacket.

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