Trump says of climbdown on auto tariffs ‘we didn’t want to penalize’ American car makers – live
Trump says he ‘wanted to help’ US automakers with order relaxing some car tariffs
On the auto tariff executive orders, Trump said:
We just wanted to help [automakers] enjoy this little transition, short-term. If they can’t get parts, you know, it has to do with a very small percentage. If they can’t get parts, we didn’t want to penalize them.
The president will sign an executive order later today to relax some of his 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts, a significant climbdown as the duties threatened to hurt domestic manufacturers.
The change will allow carmakers with US factories to reduce the amount they pay in import taxes on foreign parts, using a formula tied to how many cars they sell and the price.
The provision is intended to provide relief to businesses for two years as they rework their supply chains, White House officials said.
They also said that parts made in Canada and Mexico that follow North America free trade rules would not face tariffs, an exemption previously described as temporary.
Key events
Lauren Gambino
Doug Emhoff, the husband of former vice-president Kamala Harris, accused the Trump administration of turning “one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue”, after he and other Joe Biden appointees were removed from the board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Emhoff, who is Jewish and spoke passionately against the rising tide of antisemitism during his time as the Second Gentleman, said he was informed on Tuesday that he had been removed from the museum’s council.
“Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve,” he said.
“No divisive political decision will ever shake my commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education or to combatting hate and antisemitism. I will continue to speak out, to educate, and to fight hate in all its forms—because silence is never an option.”
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration also fired Ron Klain, Biden’s first chief of staff, Susan Rice, national security adviser to Barack Obama and Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, and Tom Perez, the former labor secretary who was a senior advisor to the former president.
Trump defeated Harris in November. Emhoff’s law firm recently struck a deal with the Trump administration to avert an executive order targeting its practice, a decision the former Second Gentleman is reported to have voiced his disagreement with.
Pete Hegseth scraps Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program citing DEI
Joseph Gedeon
Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, has abruptly banished the Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program as part of his crusade against diversity and equity – dismissing it as “woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative” despite it being a signature Donald Trump achievement from his first term.
In a post on X, Hegseth wrote: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the [Department of Defense]. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops – distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.”
The defense secretary added the program was “pushed by feminists and left-wing activists”, claiming “Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”
But the decision is raising some eyebrows as the initiative was established during Trump’s first administration when he signed the Women, Peace and Security Act in 2017, making the US the first country in the world to codify standalone legislation on the matter.
The Trump campaign even courted women voters by citing the initiative as one of its top accomplishments for women on its website.
Attempting to square this circle, Hegseth later claimed the Biden administration had “distorted & weaponized” the original program. “Biden ruined EVERYTHING, including ‘Women, Peace & Security,’” he insisted.
Senate confirms billionaire banker Warren Stephens as ambassador to the UK
The Senate has confirmed billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens to be ambassador to the UK, backing Donald Trump’s nominee by 59 to 39.
Stephens is chairman, president, and CEO of Stephens Inc, a privately owned financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a longtime contributor to Republican candidates, including Trump, having donated millions of dollars to support his campaigns and 2025 inauguration fund.
Asked about negotiations with Congress over tax legislation, Trump said: “the Republicans are with us. I think we’ve got the big beautiful deal that’s moving along, and I think we’re going to have it taken care of.”
A very important element that we’re working on now, more important than anything with the border in good shape, is the fact that we want to get, and very importantly, the big beautiful new deal. If we get that done, that’s the biggest thing … And I think we’re going to get it done. We have great Republican support. If the Democrats blocked it, you’d have a 60% tax increase. I don’t think that’s going to happen. We have great support from Republicans.
He added:
The next period of time, I think, my biggest focus will be on Congress, the deal that we’re working on. that would be the biggest bill in the history of our country in terms of tax cuts and regulation cuts, and other things.
Trump says he ‘wanted to help’ US automakers with order relaxing some car tariffs
On the auto tariff executive orders, Trump said:
We just wanted to help [automakers] enjoy this little transition, short-term. If they can’t get parts, you know, it has to do with a very small percentage. If they can’t get parts, we didn’t want to penalize them.
The president will sign an executive order later today to relax some of his 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts, a significant climbdown as the duties threatened to hurt domestic manufacturers.
The change will allow carmakers with US factories to reduce the amount they pay in import taxes on foreign parts, using a formula tied to how many cars they sell and the price.
The provision is intended to provide relief to businesses for two years as they rework their supply chains, White House officials said.
They also said that parts made in Canada and Mexico that follow North America free trade rules would not face tariffs, an exemption previously described as temporary.
Jeff Bezos is ‘a good guy’ and ‘solved the problem very quickly’, Trump says
Donald Trump said Jeff Bezos “was very nice, he was terrific” during their call earlier and “he solved the problem very quickly”. “He’s a good guy,” Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One.
Trump called the Amazon executive chairman this morning to complain about a report that the company planned to display prices that show the impact of tariffs.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick says US has reached a trade deal with a country he cannot name yet
The Trump administration has reached one trade deal already and is waiting for approvals from that country before announcing it, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview with CNBC.
I have a deal done … but I need to wait for their prime minister and their parliament to give its approval, which I expect shortly.
Representative Don Bacon draws $500bn red line on Medicaid cuts in GOP megabill – report
Key GOP moderate Don Bacon has privately told the White House he won’t accept more than $500bn in cuts to Medicaid, two people with direct knowledge of the matter have told Politico.
Bacon’s red line could complicate matters as Republicans try to pass its massive party-line megabill to enact Trump’s domestic policy agenda, which is set to include border security, energy policy and other provisions.
The representative from Nebraska told Politico he wants to limit the changes to Medicaid to implementing the first-ever federal work requirements for the program, excluding noncitizens from eligibility for benefits and mandating more frequent eligibility checks.
Moderates like Bacon are wary of cutting deep into social safety net programs like Medicaid, while GOP fiscal hawks are pressing for more drastic cuts to federal spending. With the party’s slim majorities in both chambers, House speaker Mike Johnson – despite his optimistic tone this morning – can’t afford to lose more than three Republicans on a party-line vote.
FBI and national security agencies using polygraphs for ‘leak’ hunts – report
Kash Patel has instructed the FBI to administer polygraph tests to identify the sources of alleged leaks to news outlets, the Washington Post (paywall) reports.
In recent weeks, the bureau’s director has ordered the tests be used to investigate sensitive information that was shared with the press, creating a climate of fear and intimidation, according to the Post.
The polygraphs are part of an administration-wide effort to clamp down on dissent, sources told the paper.
Current and former officials describe a culture of intimidation where the “sense of dread is palpable” among employees, with one former FBI field office head saying:
People are trying to keep their heads down. Morale is in the toilet.
Trump administration proposed sending up to 500 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador’s mega-prison
The United States proposed sending up to 500 Venezuelan migrants with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador as the two governments sought to reach an agreement on the use of the nation’s notorious mega-prison, according to emails seen by CNN.
The details of the arrangement, which have not been previously reported, reveal the Trump administration’s deal-making with El Salvador to take the unprecedented step of sending migrants to the country to be detained in Cecot.
El Salvador eventually agreed to accept up to 300 people in mid-March, according to an internal document. A US official described 500 as a “notional” figure, adding that the arrangement between the two countries is a “cooperation agreement but in a friendly non-binding fashion”, and still stands.
Trump called Bezos to complain about report that Amazon planned to list tariff costs on site
Donald Trump called Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning to complain about a report that the company planned to display prices that show the impact of tariffs, CNN reports.
CNN notes that an administration official described Trump as “pissed” after learning of the news. Soon after the call, an Amazon spokesperson released a statement clarifying the move “was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties”.
The spokesperson later sent CNN a revised statement, adding: “This was never approved and not going to happen.”
Andrew Roth
‘The weeks when decades happened’: Trump’s first 100 days took the US from cornerstone of the west to unreliable ally
For US foreign policy, Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office were the weeks when decades happened.
In just over three months, the US president has frayed alliances that stood since the second world war and alienated the US’s closest friends, cut off aid to Ukrainians on the frontlines against Vladimir Putin, emboldened US rivals around the world, brokered and then lost a crucial ceasefire in Gaza, launched strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and seesawed on key foreign policy and economic questions to the point where the US has been termed the “unpredictable ally”.
The tariffs Trump has unleashed will, if effected, disrupt global trade and lead to supply chain shocks in the United States, with China’s Xi Jinping seeking to recruit US trade allies in the region.
Operating mainly through executive action, the Trump administration has affected nearly all facets of US foreign policy: from military might to soft power, from trade to immigration, reimagining the US’s place in the world according to an isolationist America First program.
“The shake-up has been revolutionary, extraordinary. It’s upended 80-some years of American foreign policy,” said Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former ambassador to Nato.
The Trump presidency has ended the relative peace in the western hemisphere since the end of the second world war underwritten by US economic, military and diplomatic influence, Daalder said.
The foundation of the Pax Americana was trust, and once you break trust, it’s extraordinarily difficult to restore. And restoring trust – trust in America, trust in American institutions, trust in American voters – it takes a long time to rebuild.
‘Finish your cars in America and you win’: commerce secretary says Trump’s auto tariff relief aimed at reshoring production
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump will sign an executive order later today giving automakers building vehicles in the US relief from part of his new 25% vehicle tariffs to allow them time to bring parts supply chains back to the US, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Lutnick told reporters that automakers would receive credits for up to 15% of the value of vehicles assembled in the US that could be applied against the value of imported parts. This would help domestic carmakers move their supply chains to the US, he said. The relief would be phased in over three years, he added.
All cars that are finished in the US that have 85% domestic content will have no tariff applied, Lutnick said, adding that the auto tariff will apply to foreign carmakers building cars in the US. “This is ‘finish your cars in America and you win’,” he said.
Autos and parts subject to the 25% section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs would no longer be subject to other tariffs imposed by Trump, including 25% duties on Canadian and Mexican goods, as well as 10% duties applied to most other countries, Reuters reports.
Reuters reports that Lutnick said the adjustments to auto tariffs were aimed at allowing domestic carmakers time to grow their US plants and employment. He said it hadn’t been clear until conversations with automakers that even a small tariff would hold them back from hiring and investment. He said they told Trump they needed relief in order to boost hiring plans.
Two years was the agreed time to give manufacturers sufficient time to build up their supply chains, Lutnick said, adding there would be no third year of relief.
Senate backs Trump’s pick former senator and business executive David Perdue for ambassador to China
A majority of the Senate has backed one-time senator David Perdue to be ambassador to China, a position the former business executive assumes amid a deep strategic rivalry and blistering trade war between the two countries.
Reuters reports the tally was 67 to 29 in favor of confirming Donald Trump’s nominee Perdue, who was a Republican senator from Georgia from 2015 to 2021.
Perdue has long been an ally of Trump and has fiercely repeated the president’s lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election. He ran unsuccessfully to be governor of Georgia in 2022 after losing his Senate seat, making voter fraud central to his campaign and falsely claiming that his seat had also been “stolen”. He’s also the former chief executive of Dollar General.
