Donald Trump’s administration falsely declared more than 6,300 immigrants dead in an attempt to get them to self-deport, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Earlier this week, the White House added the names and Social Security numbers of thousands of living, breathing people to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, which is used to track when a person has died and should stop receiving government benefits. 

But it can have far-ranging effects, as people will no longer be able to access their bank accounts or use their credit cards. The SSA’s website said that the effects of being wrongly included in the DMF can be “devastating to the individual, spouse, and dependent children.”

The outrageous move targeted individuals whose legal status had just been revoked, people who the government claimed were convicted criminals or “suspected terrorists,” according to documents reviewed by the Times. However, the list managed to include eight minors, including one 13-year-old.  

The Trump administration’s system for identifying suspected terrorists has come under scrutiny in recent weeks, after multiple individuals swept up in the mass deportation of alleged Tren de Aragua members said that they were wrongly identified based on their innocuous tattoos.

A White House official told The Washington Post that included in the DMF list were nearly 1,000 people collecting Medicaid payments, 41 collecting unemployment insurance, and 22 receiving student loans. 

The SSA’s acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has also agreed to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the last known addresses of 98,000 people, a major shift for the agency charged with closely guarding citizens’ private information. Twelve current and former officials told the Times that before the Trump administration, the agency had never engaged in widespread data sharing with immigration authorities.

In taking this action, the Trump administration has transformed the SSA into an arm of enforcement for its massive deportation efforts. 

Mere hours after the markets were slightly buoyed by a White House announcement that Donald Trump’s global tariff plan would see a 90-day pause, the president decided to reverse course and threaten more tariffs.

In a nighttime post to Truth Social Thursday, Trump warned that Mexico could be subject to a higher tariff rate as punishment for allegedly violating an 81-year-old water treaty.

“Mexico OWES Texas 1.3 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 Water Treaty, but Mexico is unfortunately violating their Treaty obligation,” Trump wrote. “This is very unfair, and it is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly.

“Last year, the only Sugar Mill in Texas CLOSED, because Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas Farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed, but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help the Farmers,” he continued.

“THAT ENDS NOW!” the president wrote. “I will make sure Mexico doesn’t violate our Treaties, and doesn’t hurt our Texas Farmers. Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until Mexico complies with the 1944 Water Treaty. My Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, is standing up for Texas Farmers, and we will keep escalating consequences, including TARIFFS and, maybe even SANCTIONS, until Mexico honors the Treaty, and GIVES TEXAS THE WATER THEY ARE OWED!”

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum didn’t outright reject the claim that her country had violated the water deal, but instead cited a three-year drought induced by climate change as the reason for the decreased shipments, noting on X that “to the extent water is available, Mexico has been complying.

“I have instructed the Secretaries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, to immediately contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of State,” Sheinbaum wrote. “I am confident that, as with other issues, an agreement will be reached.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s hit-or-miss approach to enacting tariffs has sent the U.S. markets into a tailspin in little more than a week, leaving some financial experts believing that the president had done irreparable damage to America’s trade reputation and its economy. Banks and investment firms are still predicting a high possibility of a recession, even after Trump caved to mounting domestic pressure Wednesday and announced a 90-day pause to his sweeping tariff proposal for 200 countries.

China has fired back at Donald Trump’s tariff hike with one of its own.

The country raised tariff rates against the U.S. from 85 percent to 125 percent Friday morning, following Thursday’s confirmation from the Trump administration that it was placing tariffs of 145 percent on China—125 percent as a reciprocal measure, plus an additional 20 percent because Trump thinks Beijing isn’t doing anything about fentanyl.

“Even if the U.S. continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of world economy,” the Chinese Finance Ministry said in a statement, which CNBC translated.

“With tariff rates at the current level, there is no longer a market for U.S. goods imported into China,” the statement added, saying that “if the U.S. government continues to increase tariffs on China, Beijing will ignore.”

Despite its tough talk, China’s Foreign Ministry said that it was open to negotiate with the U.S. on an equal footing in a separate statement, refuting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s comments on Wednesday that “it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system.”

The move is a further escalation of the trade war between the two countries instigated by Trump, which doesn’t help either economy. Countless corporations in the U.S. depend on China, and 10 million to 20 million Chinese workers are involved with U.S. exports. Trump’s tariff moves have been so erratic that hedge fund managers are wondering if he is insane. Nobody knows........

© New Republic