Trump meets India’s Modi after signing reciprocal trade tariff: Live updates

Donald Trump launched an All Caps social media tirade on Thursday morning, sounding off on alleged media corruption, tariffs, and the “bloody” war in Ukraine.

Kicking off the rant he mused over the work of the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, headed by his “First Buddy” Elon Musk.

Mike Bedigan trawls through the posts so you don’t have to…

Standing next to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump criticized India for having high tariffs as he said the U.S. would do the same to them with import taxes.

“Whatever India charges, we charge them,” Trump said at a joint news conference. “So frankly, it no longer matters to us that much what they charge.”

Trump said he wanted to levy “reciprocal” tariffs against all trade partners during his first term. But he said the coronavirus pandemic interrupted his efforts and left him not feeling “really in the mood” to launch tariffs that could trigger a broader trade conflict.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump signed a presidential memorandum that promised a review to establish tariffs that the U.S. president felt would be fair, under the premise that it could raise revenues and lead to negotiations for better trade terms.

Trump says his administration has approved the extradition to India of one of the plotters of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

Standing alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump appeared to be referencing Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was convicted in 2011 in the U.S. for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.

“He’s going to be going back to India to face justice,” Trump said.

In his press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Donald Trump said that the U.S. will increase military sales to India, including F-35 Stealth Fighters.

The president noted that strong cooperation with India, Australia, and Japan, is crucial to peace.

India, meanwhile, has announced it will reduce tariffs on U.S. goods and Trump and Modi will begin talks on disparities in trade with a goal of signing an agreement between the two nations.

The president reiterated his earlier statement that the U.S. is entitled to a level playing field in international trade. He added that the trade deficit with India can be made up with sales of oil and gas having reached an agreement on energy. Trump says the U.S. hopes to be the number one supplier to India.

The two countries will also join forces on AI development.

Further, Trump says the U.S. has agreed to work with India on a trade route including undersea cables and train routes in cooperation with Italy and Israel.

With reporting from Reuters

John Bowden writes:

On Thursday, Mitch McConnell did what just one year ago would have been unthinkable: He completed a four-step condemnation of Donald Trump, and voted against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the nation’s health secretary.

But it was an almost completely meaningless gesture. McConnell, 82, is going by the same playbook he did during Donald Trump’s first presidency and his ensuing political resurrection — offering token resistance to the man who took over his party while providing political cover for his allies in the GOP Senate caucus.

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Katie Hawkinson has the story.

Some researchers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs working on cancer treatment, opioid addiction, prosthetics and burn pit exposure have been laid off, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said Thursday.

Murray said the Trump administration is not honoring a standard practice of extending the researchers’ three-year terms for their work.

“I’m hearing from longtime VA researchers in my home state of Washington who are right now being told to immediately stop their research and pack their bags,” Murray said in a statement, “not because their work isn’t desperately needed, but because Trump and Elon have decided to fire these researchers on a whim.”

There are more than 100 active VA research sites nationwide.

On Thursday, a fourth federal judge blocked President Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, adding to a growing number of courts that have prevented the president from enforcing his directive amid ongoing legal challenges.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, who serves on the federal district court in Massachusetts, stated that a coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia, along with two nonprofit organizations, are likely to succeed in their claims.

The challengers contend that Mr. Trump’s executive order, issued on his first day in office, infringes upon the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment Amendment.

“The Constitution confers birthright citizenship broadly, including to persons within the categories described in the EO,” Sorokin wrote in his decision.

Sorokin, an Obama appointee, joins federal judges in Maryland, Washington, and New Hampshire that have issued preliminary injunctions blocking the Trump administration from enforcing the birthright citizenship executive order.

The Justice Department has appealed two of those decisions to federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia.