Donald Trump is preparing to unveil a raft of new tariffs on Wednesday afternoon in what the president has repeatedly billed as “Liberation Day.”
Trump has promised to roll out reciprocal dollar-for-dollar tariffs on nations that levy duties on U.S. goods as part of an aggressive attempt to fulfill his administration’s America First agenda and correct years of what he deems “unfair” trade.
International markets wait tentatively as the president is expected to unveil his plans at 4 p.m. Wednesday at a “Make America Wealthy Again” event in the White House Rose Garden at the moment American markets close.
Plans remain under wraps with Trump’s team reportedly weighing options through Tuesday. However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the president had already decided his course of action and that the tariffs would go into effect almost immediately. The only way to avoid the new levies, she said, is to move production to the U.S.
It follows the liberal candidate for a critical seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Susan Crawford, who defeated conservative Brad Schimel in a race seen as a referendum on Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Trump announces $100m deal with Doug Emhoff’s law firm
The law firm that Doug Emhoff, the husband of former vice president Kamala Harris, works at has agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono services to the Trump administration – the latest law firm to cut a deal with the administration to avoid repercussions.
Ariana Baio has the details.
Trump tells inner circle Musk leaving soon, report says
During his executive order signing presser on Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that cabinet secretaries could continue the work of DOGE in their own departments, and that he expected Elon Musk to go back to running his companies.
“At some point, he’s going to be going back. I’d keep him as long as I can keep him – he’s a very talented guy,” Trump told reporters during the huddle.
Now, reporting by Politico says that Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks.
The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship.
Musk’s looming retreat comes as some Trump administration insiders and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability and increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was thrown into stark relief Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk vocally supported lost his bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by 10 points.
Musk’s time as a special federal employee technically ends after 130 days, so this is not entirely unexpected. His DOGE team is embedded in each department and could continue their work under each secretary — if required.
Nevertheless, the news created quite a stir:
Liberation Day: Mexico set to be hit hardest by Trump’s auto sector tariffs
Watch: Rep Byron Donalds asked about constituents feeling tariff pain
Mexico’s Sheinbaum maintains optimistic tone in face of promised new tariffs
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is maintaining an optimistic tone in the face of expected new tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Her government has sought “preferential treatment” from the Trump administration due to a free trade agreement between the two nations and Canada.
Sheinbaum stated she would wait to take action on Thursday until it was clear how Trump’s announcement would impact Mexico, noting that her government was in constant contact with his administration.
“It’s not a question of if you impose tariffs on me, I’m going to impose tariffs on you,” she said in a news briefing Wednesday. “Our interest is in strengthening the Mexican economy.”
While Trump has already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, economic forecasters have warned that broader 25% tariffs could push Mexico’s economy into a recession.
With reporting by the AP
McConnell on board with Democrat push to rebuke Trump for tariffs on Canada
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on board with an effort by Democrats in the upper chamber — led by senators Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, and Mark Warner — to end Donald Trump’s “made-up emergency” that the president has declared against Canada allowing him authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on the U.S.’s northern neighbor.
Trump claims the authority by declaring a national emergency caused by the flow of fentanyl and undocumented migration from Canada — as well as Mexico and China.
“President Trump is saying that there is an emergency with Canada. Canada is a friend, not an adversary. Canada is a sovereign nation, not a 51st state,” Senator Kaine of Virginia said on Tuesday.
This morning, CNN’s Haley Talbot reports that the list of Republicans who will vote Yes on a tariffs resolution up for a vote today at around 7 p.m. has grown to include the former GOP leader of the Senate.
Kaine said he approached McConnell last night and didn’t even get to the question before the Kentucky senator said: “I’m with you.”
Other Republicans in support of the move to at least symbolically rebuke the president on his trade policy — just a few hours after his “Liberation Day” announcement on reciprocal tariffs expected to cover a large swathe of U.S. trading partners — include senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul.
Senator Thom Tillis also told CNN that he doesn’t plan on voting for Kaine’s resolution, but has “some concerns with the trade policies being discussed,” adding, “We need to see what comes out tomorrow [Wednesday] and be instructed by that before we take action.”
Earlier, Trump wrote in part on Truth Social:
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy. They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels. The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it.
TikTok memes, songs and praise for Cory Booker’s record-breaking Senate filibuster
After breaking the record for the longest Senate speech in history, Cory Booker now seems to have broken the internet, with a slew of praise, memes and even TikTok videos commemorating his mammoth achievement.
Mike Bedigan looks at some of the online reactions.
Here’s how Cory Booker’s record-breaking 25-hour anti-Trump Senate speech went down
Richard Hall writes:
It was fitting that Cory Booker was recounting a story about the late civil rights leader John Lewis as he entered the 19th minute and 24th hour of a historic speech to the Senate on Tuesday evening.
In that moment, the first Black Senator for New Jersey broke a record for the longest speech ever made in Congress, one that was set 67 years ago by the segregationist Democrat Strom Thurmond, who spoke for a day and a night in opposition to the Civil Rights Act.
Overcome with emotion, Booker looked up to the ceiling and touched his heart as his fellow Democrats in the chamber applauded his effort.
Continue reading…
‘The heat shield has melted’: ‘Morning Joe’ hosts revel in Elon Musk’s failure in Wisconsin after multi-million investment
Musk repeatedly played up the stakes of the election, claiming it will direct the “destiny of humanity” and the future of “the world” is at stake.
Now, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough is reveling in the “massive loss” Musk suffered.
Katie Hawkinson reports from Washington, D.C.
Liberation Day: Three countries at risk of being hit hardest by Trump tariffs
Source: independent.co.uk
