Closing summary
We are wrapping up our live coverage for the day, but will return to chronicle the second Trump administration on Wednesday. Here are some of the day’s developments:
Donald Trump’s trade war kicks into a higher gear at midnight, as 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum are scheduled to begin. There was widespread confusion about whether the tariffs would be delayed, or increased, amid conflicting statements from the president and his chief trade adviser, but the White House said that the previously delayed tariffs would begin, even as the stock marker plunges.
The detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, remains in federal custody, despite being charged with no crime. Khalil’s wife said in a statement before a hearing on Wednesday in Manhattan that he was forced into an unmarked car by immigration officers who refused to show a warrant.
The Department of Education’s “final mission” starts with laying off nearly half its workforce, its new secretary said. About 1,300 federal education workers received notices of lay-offs on Tuesday.
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding bill, which would avert a government shutdown if it also passed the Senate before midnight on Friday.
Ukraine agreed to accept a US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire and to take steps toward restoring a durable peace after Russia’s invasion, according to a joint statement by American and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Saudi Arabia. Russia has not commented.
Canada’s prime minister-designate Mark Carney said he would not lift retaliatory tariffs on American goods until Washington does the same.
At Tuesday’s promotional event for Elon Musk’s line of Tesla electric vehicles at the White House, Trump refused to drive one of the cars, and scoffed at the idea that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had done so at a similar event. There is video of Biden doing so, in August 2021, at an event to promote electric vehicles that Musk reportedly was angry at being excluded from over anti-union policies.
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Mahmoud Khalil’s wife says he was forced into an unmarked car by immigration officers
Ahead of a hearing at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, the wife of Mahmoud Khalil has released the following statement:
My husband, Mahmoud Khalil, is my rock. He is my home and he is my happy place. I am currently 8 months pregnant, and I could not imagine a better father for my child. We’ve been excitedly preparing to welcome our baby, and now Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all.
I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration.
This last week has been a nightmare: Six days ago, an intense and targeted doxxing campaign against Mahmoud began. Anti-Palestinian organizations were spreading false claims about my husband that were simply not based in reality. They were making threats against Mahmoud and he was so concerned about his safety that he emailed Columbia University on March 7th. In his email, he begged the university for legal support, “I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support and I urge you to intervene,” he said in his email.
Columbia University never responded to that email.
Instead, on March 8th, at around 8:30 pm, as we were returning home from an Iftar dinner, an ICE officer followed us into our building and asked, “Are you Mahmoud Khalil?”
Mahmoud stated, “Yes.”
The officer then proceeded to say, “We are with the police, you have to come with us.”
The officer told Mahmoud to give me the apartment keys and that I could go upstairs. When I refused, afraid to leave my husband, the officer stated, “I will arrest you too.”
The officers later barricaded Mahmoud from me. We were not shown any warrant and the ICE officers hung up the phone on our lawyer. When my husband attempted to give me his phone so I could speak with our lawyer, the officers got increasingly aggressive, despite Mahmoud being fully cooperative.
Everyone who knows Mahmoud knows him to be level-headed even in the most stressful situations. And even in this terrifying situation, he was calm.
Within minutes, they had handcuffed Mahmoud, took him out into the street and forced him into an unmarked car. Watching this play out in front of me was traumatizing: It felt like a scene from a movie I never signed up to watch.
I was born and raised in the Midwest. My parents came here from Syria, carrying their stories of the oppressive regime there that made life unlivable. They believed living in the US would bring a sense of safety and stability. But here I am, 40 years after my parents immigrated here, and just weeks before I’m due to give birth to our first child, and I feel more unsafe and unstable than I have in my entire life.
US immigration ripped my soul from me when they handcuffed my husband and forced him into an unmarked vehicle. Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center.
I demand the US government release him, reinstate his Green Card, and bring him home.
Perkins Coie, a prominent law firm Donald Trump is seeking to punish with an executive order, sued the Trump administration in federal court on Tuesday, saying the firm “cannot allow its clients to be bullied”.
The 6 March executive order stripped the firm’s lawyers of security clearances and access to federal buildings, and said the government would review contracts with any of the firm’s clients. The order cited the firm’s work representing Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and its hiring of a firm that created a dossier on Trump’s connections to Russia.
The order raised deep concerns about the rule of law in the United States and underscored the way Trump is using the power of the presidency to punish his political enemies.
The suit, filed in federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday, says the purpose of Trump’s executive order “is intentionally obvious to the general public and the press because the very goal is to chill future lawyers from representing particular clients” Major law firms have been more reluctant to take on Trump in his second administration, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The lawyers asked the court to block the order, citing violations of the US constitution’s first amendment, as well as the fifth amendment, which guarantees due process of law, and the sixth amendment, which guarantees the right to be represented by a lawyer.
The Trump administration has also targeted another firm, Covington & Burling, over its connection to Jack Smith, the former justice department special counsel who prosecuted Trump.
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Unlike Biden, Trump invited Musk to show off electric vehicles at the White House, but declined to drive one
At Tuesday’s promotional event for Elon Musk’s line of Tesla electric vehicles at the White House, when a reporter asked Donald Trump whether he would take one for a spin, he goaded the president by mentioning he had seen his predecessor, Joe Biden, do so at a similar event.
Trump, who claimed he was “not allowed to drive”, scoffed at the idea and suggested the reporter must have been “the only one” who had seen Biden drive an EV.
In fact, there is plenty of video of Biden taking an electric Jeep for a test drive in the same location in August 2021.
What makes the contrast between the two events to promote electric vehicles on the south lawn of the White House even more stark is the fact that Musk, who was excluded from Biden’s event, played such a central role in Trump’s.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported last year that being snubbed by Biden, who invited the heads of three Tesla rivals – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis – to the 2021 signing of an executive order promoting electric vehicles helped push the billionaire in Trump’s direction.
With Trump now ensconced in the White House, but Tesla’s stock sinking due to Musk’s leading role in the destruction of federal agencies, the Tesla chief executive seemed delighted by the president’s personal effort to boost his sales on Tuesday.
When Trump got into the driver’s seat of a Tesla Model S, Musk hopped in to the passenger seat to explain to him just how easy it is to drive. “It’s like driving a golf cart, basically,” Musk said. “It’s literally like a golf cart that goes really fast.”
After Trump decided not to drive in front of the assembled cameras, he got out, cracking: “You think Biden could get into that car?”
Trump was then asked by Brian Glenn, a favored correspondent for the far-right news channel Real America’s Voice, to comment on anti-Tesla protests, as well as vandalism at some dealerships.
“Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists,” Glenn commented.
“I will do that,” Trump replied. “I’m going to stop them.”
Glenn said later that he had asked the question because the anti-Tesla protests were “no different from what we saw antifa do”.
When another reporter asked whether the point of the product placement at the White House was to “boost Tesla sales and boost their stock”, Trump replied: “Well, I hope it does.”
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Department of Education’s 'final mission' starts with laying off nearly half its workforce, secretary says
“As part of the Department of Education’s final mission,” the new education secretary, Linda McMahon, announced on Tuesday evening, “the Department today initiated a reduction in force (RIF) impacting nearly 50% of the Department’s workforce.”
On social media, McMahon, the former chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, shared posts praising the move, including one by a founder of Moms for Liberty, a conservative activist group that has called for the banning of books it calls pornographic, curtailing the teaching of LGBTQ+ experiences and restricting discussions of race in schools.
After Tuesday’s layoffs of about 1,300 workers, the department’s staff will be roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said in a statement. According to the department, another 572 employees had already accepted “voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement” over the last seven weeks. The newly laid-off employees will be placed on administrative leave at the end of next week.
The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said.
Department officials said the agency would continue to oversee the distribution of federal aid to schools, student loan management and oversight of Pell grants.
Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, claiming it had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”. At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, she acknowledged that only Congress has the power to abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a reorganization.
On Monday, McMahon wrote to 60 universities to warn them that they were under investigation for supposed violations of the Civil Rights Act because of protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that the Trump administration defines as “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” of Jewish students.
As the department pushes ahead with cuts, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training, finding that cuts were already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage.
The US district judge Myong Joun sided with eight states that had requested a temporary restraining order. The states argued the cuts were likely driven by Trump’s drive to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which the president seems to believe is a form of racism against white Americans.
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White House confirms 25% tariff on steel and aluminum 'with no exceptions' starts at midnight
Following widespread confusion as to whether or not Trump would make good on his threat to impose 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, the White House released a statement to clarify that the president had withdrawn that proposal, but would press ahead with blanket 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum from US trading partners, including Canada, starting at midnight.
Here is the full statement from a White House deputy press secretary, Kush Desai, who got his start as a “fact check reporter” for the Daily Caller, a publication co-founded by Tucker Carlson, who is not known for his rigorous adherence to the facts:
After President Trump threatened to use his executive powers to retaliate with a colossal 50 percent tariff against Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke with Secretary Lutnick to convey that he is backing down on implementing a 25 percent charge on electricity exports to the United States. President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people. Pursuant to his previous executive orders, a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum with no exceptions or exemptions will go into effect for Canada and all of our other trading partners at midnight, March 12th.
The uncertainty about tariffs has helped drive the stock market sharply down this week.
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House narrowly passes stopgap funding bill as government shutdown looms
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding bill, which would avert a government shutdown if it also passed the Senate before midnight on Friday.
The measure would extend government funding largely at current levels through the end of September, but includes cuts in funding, including for veterans’ healthcare, infrastructure investments, and nutrition and rent assistance for families in need. It passed by a vote of 217-213, with one Republican voting against it, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and one Democrat voting for it, Representative Jared Golden of Maine.
Democrats in the Senate could block the bill from becoming law, since it requires 60 votes there, and Republicans hold only 53 seats. One Republican senator, Rand Paul, has come out strongly against the bill, writing: “Count me as a hell no!” on X. One Democratic senator, John Fetterman, said he would support the Republican bill, telling a HuffPost reporter: “I’m not going to vote to shut the government down.”
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In remarks to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Donald Trump defended the decision to detain the former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, saying that he would like to see the measure, which has triggered widespread condemnation and protests, be expanded to attempt to deport more students from the US.
Trump was asked how many arrests would be necessary and answered: “I think we ought to get them all out of the country,”, adding: “They’re troublemakers, they’re agitators, they don’t love our country.” Trump claimed to have watched tapes of Khalil making statements that he described as “plenty bad”.
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Up to half of the Department of Education’s 4,400 employees could be laid off on Tuesday evening, sources tell CNN.
The news was echoed by a report from Fox that employees could receive “reduction in force” notices ahead of sweeping layoffs.
The new education secretary, Linda McMahon, said in a video posted on X on Tuesday that Trump would be making good on one of his campaign promises by “sending education back to the states”.
Trump could still make good on a pledge to eliminate the education department entirely, which Republicans have been discussing for more than a decade. In 2011, when the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, had a brain freeze on naming all three of the departments he would cut, one of the two he named was education.
In the meantime, however, the department is being used to pursue other priorities of the Trump administration.
On Monday, the department announced that it had “sent letters to 60 institutions of higher education warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.”
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New tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum will be 25% not 50%, White House says
Peter Navarro, a senior aide to Donald Trump on trade, told CNBC that the president had reversed his decision, announced this morning, to double planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%.
New tariffs of 25% on all imported steel and aluminum are still scheduled take effect at midnight on Wednesday, including against allies and top US suppliers Canada and Mexico, the White House confirmed to Reuters after Navarro’s interview.
Trump had earlier signaled to reporters outside the White House that he was rethinking his decision to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports, after Ontario’s premier Doug Ford canceled a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states.
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Donald Trump’s impromptu press conference outside the White House with Elon Musk also saw him announce his selection of one of several Teslas that were parked in the driveway.
The president told the press he would be buying a red Model S, though he added he would not be allowed to test-drive it.
The decision puts Trump on the wrong side of a boycott aimed at Tesla for Musk’s involvement in stripping down the US government:
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Wall Street indices have clawed back some of their losses seen earlier today, after the US and Canada dialed back a flare-up in their newly tense trade relationship.
But markets have generally fallen in recent days after Donald Trump imposed tariffs on America’s northern neighbor.
Asked for his reaction to the sell off, Trump said it “doesn’t concern me. I think some, some people are going to make great deals by buying stocks and bonds and all the things they’re buying. I think we’re going to have an economy that’s a real economy, not a fake economy.”
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Trump will 'probably' reconsider increasing tariffs on Canada after Ontario cancels electricity surcharge
Donald Trump said he is rethinking his decision earlier today to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports, after Ontario’s premier Doug Ford canceled a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states.
“I’m looking at that, but probably so,” Trump responded, when asked if he was rethinking his decision to raise tariffs on Canadian metals to 50%. He added that Ford was “a gentleman”, then pivoted to arguing that Canada should become America’s 51st state.
Trump was speaking outside the White House with Elon Musk and one of his sons, along with some Teslas that the president said he would buy.
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Donald Trump is currently taking questions from the press outside the White House on a nice early spring day in Washington DC.
He’s with Elon Musk and one of his sons, plus some Teslas, which Trump recently said he would be buying.
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Ontario suspends electricity surcharge after US commerce secretary agrees to talks
Ontario will suspend its 25% surcharge on exports of electricity to three US states after top American trade officials agreed to negotiate with the Canadian province in Washington DC later this week.
The end of the surcharge, which prompted Donald Trump to double his administration’s tariffs on Canadian metal imports and threaten even harsher measures, was announced in a joint statement from Ontario premier Doug Ford, and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. Ford imposed the tax last week, in retaliation for 25% tariffs Trump levied on Canadian goods, which the White House later relaxed.
Here is the statement, in full:
Today, United States Secretary of Commerce @howardlutnick and Premier of Ontario Doug Ford had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada.
Secretary Lutnick agreed to officially meet with Premier Ford in Washington on Thursday, March 13 alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline. In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
Government funding bill moves closer to passage after key House vote
A bill to fund the government through September and prevent a shutdown from starting after Friday has cleared a key vote in the House.
The Republican-controlled chamber voted 216 to 213 to begin debate on the continuing resolution, which authorizes spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. All Democrats opposed the measure, while the sole GOP defector was Thomas Massie, who has attracted the ire of Donald Trump for bucking Republican leadership.
The continuing resolution is expected to have a final vote on passage later today, and it remains to be seen if any further Republican defections will emerge.
Ukraine agrees to accept 'immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire', US restores security, intelligence aid
Ukraine has agreed to accept a US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire and to take steps toward restoring a durable peace after Russia’s invasion, according to a joint statement by American and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Saudi Arabia.
Washington has also announced that it will immediately restart security assistance and intelligence sharing.
We have a live blog covering this breaking story, and you can follow it here:
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The Trump administration has asked Columbia University for help in identifying alleged “pro-Hamas” activists on its campus, but the school is refusing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help [the Department of Homeland Security] identify those individuals on campus, and as the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that,” Leavitt said at her just-concluded press briefing.
It’s unclear what sort of help the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires, as Leavitt said they already have the names of the activists. The comment comes after immigration agents arrested activist Mahmoud Khalil and are attempting to deport him, despite the fact that he holds a green card. Donald Trump has said more such arrests will come:
Incoming PM Mark Carney says Canada will keep tariffs 'until the Americans show us respect'
Canada’s prime minister-designate Mark Carney said he would not lift retaliatory tariffs on American good until Washington does the same.
In a brief post on X, Carney, a former central banker who won the race to lead the federal Liberal party on Sunday, said:
President Trump’s latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses. My government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the US and minimal impact here in Canada, while supporting the workers impacted.
My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade.
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White House warns Ontario against cutting electricity to US states and defends tariffs on Canada
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt is defending Donald Trump’s decision to further tighten tariffs on Canada, despite widespread economic jitters on Wall Street that are fueling yet another sell-off in today’s ongoing trading.
Pointing to investment announcements Trump has made since and decent economic data, including last week’s jobs report, Leavitt said: “The American people, CEOs and people on Wall Street and on Main Street should bet on this president. He is a deal maker. He is a businessman, and he’s doing what’s right for our country. He wants to restore wealth to the United States of America.”
She also signaled that further measures could taken against Ontario, if the Canadian province’s premier Doug Ford makes good on threats to cut off electricity supplies to three US states:
The president has made it very clear that Canada would be very wise not to shut off electricity for the American people, and we hope that that does not happen. As for what would happen if that does take place, I’ll leave it to the president to make those decisions.
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Leavitt commended the Washington Post for overhauling its newsroom structure.
“It appears the mainstream media, including the Post, is finally learning that having disdain for more than half of the country that supports this president does not help you sell newspapers,” Leavitt said. “It’s not a very good business model.”
The paper’s owner, billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced major changes to the paper last month, especially to its opinion section. Bezos said: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
The changes led to mass subscription cancellations and the outcry and departure of senior staff members.
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When asked if the US is entering a recession, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not answer definitively, but said that the numbers were a “snapshot in time”.
Wall Street suffered its sharpest decline of the year on Monday, driven in part by economic anxiety around Trump’s aggressive tariffs with the country’s largest trade partners: Canada, Mexico and China.
She added: “We’re in a period of economic transition,” and blamed Joe Biden for economic failures.
Leavitt spoke of “devastating globalization”, underscoring the Trump’s administration’s “America first” agenda.
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The White House press briefing has just begun.
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The deputy national director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), Edward Ahmed Mitchell, has condemned the “unconstitutional” targeting of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian student who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), adding that it was the “culmination of the abuses that have occurred over the past year” to advocates of Palestinian human rights and American Muslims.
Mitchell made the statement before Cair, a Muslim advocacy organisation, released its annual report on the state of Muslim civil rights in America. “This madness must end,” said Mitchell.
Nihad Awad, the national executive director of CAIR, spoke after Mitchell and said the 2025 report, titled Unconstitutional Crackdowns, documented the highest number of complaints ever received by the organisation, with 8,658 cases in its 30-year history. “This historic level of the rise in Islamophobia is alarming,” said Awad. He noted that the majority of complaints came from Muslims who said they had expressed their views on Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Awad called on Trump to “release him immediately and unconditionally”.
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The day so far
Donald Trump has further roiled already tumultuous stock markets by declaring that he will double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports and take even more drastic measures if the United States’s norther neighbor does not back down in the trade war he started. There’s no sign of that yet happening, with Ontario’s premier Doug Ford, whose imposition of a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US state enraged Trump, saying “Canada will not back down until President Trump’s tariffs are gone for good.” Meanwhile, Elon Musk mused about the need to “eliminate” spending on federal entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, prompting a cleanup effort from the GOP and attacks from Democrats.
Here’s what else has been going on today:
House Republicans are teeing up a vote this afternoon on legislation to keep the government funded through September and prevent a shutdown from happening on Friday. Whether their measure has the support to succeed is unknown.
Democrats have issues, particularly when it comes to their support among voters in battleground House districts, new polling obtained by Politico finds.
JD Vance is on Capitol Hill as Republicans wrangle votes for their must-pass spending bill.
As Democrats look for ways to regain control of Congress next year and, eventually, the White House, new internal polling underscores that the party has work to do to regain the trust of voters in critical areas nationwide.
Politico obtained the results of a survey by Democratic group Navigator Research, which found “a majority of voters in battleground House districts still believe Democrats in Congress are ‘more focused on helping other people than people like me’”.
“Among independents, just 27 percent believe Democrats are focused on helping them, compared with 55 percent who said they’re focused on others,” Politico reports.
Navigator’s findings underscore that the party appears to have alienated voters that will be crucial to restoring them back tot he majority in the House:
Especially alarming for Democrats were findings around voters’ views of Democrats and work. Just 44 percent of those polled said they think Democrats respect work, while even fewer — 39 percent — said the party values work. Only 42 percent said Democrats share their values. A majority, meanwhile — 56 percent — said Democrats are not looking out for working people.
Only 39 percent believe Democrats have the right priorities.
Republican House speaker Johnson says Democrats would be 'responsible' for shutdown if they oppose spending bill
At a press conference earlier today, Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson sought to turn up the heat on Democrats who are poised to vote against his party’s bill to keep the government funded through the end of September.
The Democratic opposition to the continuing resolution (CR) that will head off a shutdown beginning Friday means the GOP will have to rely solely on its own members to get the bill through the chamber. One lawmaker, Thomas Massie, has already said he’ll vote no, and it still remains unclear if the Republicans have the votes they need.
“Here’s the bottom line. If Congressional Democrats refuse to support this clean CR, they will be responsible for every troop who misses a paycheck, for every flight delay from reduced staffing at TSA, and for every negative consequence that comes from shutting down the government,” Johnson told reporters.
The speaker continued:
You will see one team that is working to fund the government and make sure we do the responsible thing. And you’re going to see another opposing a CR because they’ve now exposed the truth. They’re not for federal workers; they’re not for anyone. All the people they’ve said in the past that are going to be harmed, would be by their votes.
They’re using federal employees as props. They’re using Medicaid benefits and social security checks as cudgels. The threat of government shutdown they’re using as some sort of attempt to wrestle power away from the president of the United States who overwhelmingly won the popular vote, the electoral college in every single swing state.
In remarks on the Senate floor, Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of laying the groundwork for cuts to social security and Medicare.
“Yesterday afternoon, Elon Musk confirmed what many of us have warning about for a long time – Republicans are getting ready to gut Social Security and Medicare,” Schumer said.
He noted that Musk, who heads the Donald Trump-sanction “department of government efficiency”, argued the cuts can be achieved solely by eliminating waste and fraud.
“That’s a pretext to slashing them, but it’s false,” Schumer said. He continued:
Mark my words: if Elon Musk and DOGE continue their attacks against Social Security – if the president continues his attacks, which he made in his State of the Union – sooner or later benefits are going to be delayed or mistakenly halted. And the political uproar from Americans across the country will be immense.
Republicans rush to clean up Musk's comments on cutting social security, Medicare
Elon Musk last night mused about his desire to “eliminate” spending on federal entitlements such as social security and Medicare, prompting an effort by Republicans to downplay the possibility of cuts to the popular benefit programs.
The White House said that Musk was merely referring to “waste and fraud” in the programs, echoing a similar contention GOP lawmakers have made after proposing major cuts to Medicaid, another popular federal program that provides health insurance to poor and disabled Americans.
“The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits,” the White House said.
Republican congressman Mark Alford, joined the effort, telling CNN:
Look, Elon Musk is a brainiac with an IQ that I cannot even fathom. He is not a master of artful language person, like politicians and news anchors. I think when he talks about elimination, I think we’re talking about eliminating the waste, abuse and fraud. And it is true that the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security make up about 75% of our budget. It’s mandatory spending. We’ve got to find the savings there. We will do that … we are not going to eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
JD Vance has meanwhile arrived at the Capitol to shepherd through a short-term government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown from happening after Friday.
The GOP-controlled House will vote on the measure today, but their tiny majority makes its passage uncertain. Vance did not answer questions from reporters as he arrived at the Capitol.
Ontario premier says 'Canada will not back down' after Trump ups tariffs
Ontario premier Doug Ford has hit back at Donald Trump’s increase in tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum, writing on X that “Ontario and Canada will not back down until President Trump’s tariffs are gone for good.”
It’s the latest salvo in the intensifying trade conflict between the two nations, which Canada’s leaders have acknowledged could cause deep damage to their economy. Here’s more:
Wall Street, once again, appears displeased with Donald Trump’s imposition of further tariffs on Canada, and his vow to go even harder on America’s northern neighbor next month.
The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average is right now down 1.1%, or a drop of more than 400 from the open. The broad-based S&P 500 is also in the red by 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has lost 0.6%.
Trump orders more tariffs on Canada after Ontario levies tax on electricity exports
Donald Trump has ordered an increase in tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and threatened to impose more levies, after Ontario yesterday slapped a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump said he would “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if the country did not end unspecified tariffs it had placed on US goods:
Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to ad an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA!
Ontario’s addition of a 25% electricity surcharge affects New York, Minnesota and Michigan, which receive electricity from the province. Here’s more about that:
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Late last night (technically early this morning), Donald Trump made a show of support for Elon Musk, by saying he’d buy one of his Teslas.
The comment on Truth Social came amid a rough few days for Musk, after one of his rockets blew up and Tesla’s stock slumped 15%, it’s biggest fall in five years:
To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is “putting it on the line” in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s “baby,” in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for. They tried to do it to me at the 2024 Presidential Ballot Box, but how did that work out? In any event, I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American. Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???
Musk signals desire to 'eliminate' spending on social security, Medicare
Elon Musk, who has been tasked by Donald Trump with making dramatic cuts to the federal government, said in an interview yesterday he was interested in taking aim at aid programs like social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
All three programs are considered entitlements, and are major drivers of the federal budget deficit, but also popular with voters. Social security provides retirement benefits, Medicare is health insurance for the elderly and Medicaid covers lower-income and disabled Americans.
In an interview with Fox Business Network, Musk said: “Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s, like, the big one to eliminate. That’s sort of half-trillion, maybe $600, $700b a year.”
He also repeated unfounded theories that Democrats are protecting these programs because they attract undocumented immigrants: “This is why the Democrats are so upset about the situation … if we turn off this gigantic money magnet for illegal immigrants, then they will leave and they will lose voters.”
The comments from Musk come as his “department of government efficiency” has taken over the Social Security Administration and made claims of fraud that a former top official said are unfounded:
The rightwing House Freedom Caucus has in the past been an obstacle to the sorts of government funding bills Republicans hope to pass through the chamber today.
Not this time. The group announced its support on X late yesterday, saying:
This bill will reduce and then freeze spending for the next six months to allow President Trump and his Administration to continue their critical work within the Executive Branch to find and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.
It entirely kills the prospect of a budget busting, pork filled omnibus this fiscal year, and it breaks the longstanding practice in the Swamp of handcuffing increases in defense funding with increases to the non-defense bureaucracy.
Furthermore, it contains zero earmarks, makes major rescissions to the Internal Revenue Service and the so-called “Commerce slush fund,” and includes additional funding for immigration enforcement and deportation operations. Perhaps most importantly, it prevents Democrats from derailing the America First agenda with a go-nowhere government shutdown.
It wouldn’t be the House Republican Conference without some infighting, and indeed, they’re making good on that promise as they scramble to avert a government shutdown.
The latest squabble involves Thomas Massie, an eccentric GOP hardliner who often votes no on legislation he believes will increase the national debt. He’s declared his intention to vote against the government funding bill that will be considered today, prompting Donald Trump’s allies, and then the president himself, to call for someone to challenge him in next year’s primary. Here’s Trump making the call:
Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic “NO” vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past. HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him. He’s just another GRANDSTANDER, who’s too much trouble, and not worth the fight. He reminds me of Liz Chaney before her historic, record breaking fall (loss!). The people of Kentucky won’t stand for it, just watch. DO I HAVE ANY TAKERS???
Responding to attacks from former Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita, Massie had this to say about the primary threat:
Three times I’ve had a challenger who tried to be more MAGA than me. None busted 25% because my constituents prefer transparency and principles over blind allegiance.
Republicans to put government funding bill up for a vote in House
Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to put their bill to fund the government and prevent a shutdown that would begin Friday up for a vote in the closely divided chamber today.
Democrats are encouraging their members to vote no on the legislation, which would keep the government open until the end of September but also make a variety of spending cuts. The GOP thus needs unanimity to pass the legislation, as their margin in the chamber is so small they can’t afford a single defection. We’ll see if they have that.
Voting is currently expected to take place sometime after 1.30pm. Here’s more about the bill:
White House blames 'animal spirits' for Wall Street sell off
Donald Trump (and other presidents, to be fair) love to tout a healthy stock market, but there was little of that sentiment to be found on Wall Street yesterday. Major US stock indices fell significantly in the day’s trading, with traders pointing the finger at Trump’s imposition of tariffs on US trading partners and threats to levy more next month, all of which they fear will send the economy in a recession.
The trend may not necessarily continue – markets open in about an hour and a half, and futures are currently showing decent gains. But a big stock market sell off in the opening weeks of their new administration is something Trump wants to get ahead of. So a White House official had this to say yesterday about what caused it:
Want to emphasize that we’re seeing a strong divergence between animal spirits of the stock market and what we’re actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders, and the latter is obviously more meaningful than the former on what’s in store for the economy in the medium to long term.
Here’s more about yesterday’s jitters on Wall Street:
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday it has received termination notices from the US government for five of its projects, including its work in Iraq and Ukraine.
Ravina Shamdasani, UN human rights spokesperson, said the notices were for projects in Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Ukraine and Colombia and also for a fund for Indigenous people.
US president Donald Trump is cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid programmes globally as part of a major spending overhaul by the world’s biggest aid donor.
Polls have opened in Greenland for early parliamentary elections Tuesday as US President Donald Trump seeks control of the strategic Arctic island.
The self-governing region of Denmark is home to 56,000 people, most from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, and occupies a strategic North Atlantic location. It also contains rare earth minerals key to driving the global economy, AP reported.
Unofficial election results should be available soon after polls close but they won’t be certified for weeks as ballot papers make their way to the capital from remote settlements by boat, plane and helicopter.
The Trump administration is considering cancelling the lease of the support office for a renowned Hawaii climate research station, sources said, raising fears for the future of key work tracking the impact of carbon emissions on global warming.
The office is one of more than 20 rented by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that are proposed to have their leases ended under money-saving efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk, Reuters reported.
The online listing on the DOGE website mentions an NOAA office in Hilo, Hawaii and an estimate of how much would be saved by cancelling its lease – $150,692 a year.
Staff, researchers and other sources gave details on the building’s role as the main support office for the Mauna Loa Observatory about 50 km (30 miles) west of the town.
The observatory, established in 1956 on the northern flank of the Mauna Loa volcano, is recognised as the birthplace of global carbon dioxide monitoring and maintains the world’s longest record of measurements of atmospheric CO2.
Trump pick for Washington US attorney made derogatory and racist comments
Trump’s appointee as interim US attorney for the District of Columbia and nominee to hold the position permanently, Ed Martin, has repeatedly made derogatory and racist comments in past social media posts and columns.
Martin’s rhetoric includes falsely claiming Kamala Harris is “self-identified” as Black and calling her the new Rachel Dolezal, claiming Planned Parenthood targets Black communities for abortions, claiming that the supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor made racist comments to white males about her own identity and invoking false claims about Dr Martin Luther King Jr to affirm support for the Republican party and the Tea Party movement.
Trump appointed Martin to be interim US Attorney in January 2025 Last week, Martin wrote a letter to the dean of Georgetown law school, telling the school to end any diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, claiming his office would not hire anyone associated with a university with DEI programs.
In recent weeks, he has also tried to initiate a grand jury investigation into the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, over 2020 comments about supreme court justices and wrote letters threatening to prosecute Schumer and Congressman Robert Garcia over their criticism of billionaire Elon Musk and the so-called “department of government efficiency”.
He has also referred to himself and other US attorneys as “President Trump’s lawyers” rather than an independent, law-abiding officer sworn to uphold the US constitution. Senate Democrats have asked the DC bar association to investigate Martin for using the office to threaten political opponents and pardon past clients, January 6 defendants.
RFK Jr directs FDA to revise ‘self-affirm’ rule to improve food ingredient safety
The US secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has directed the Food and Drug Administration to revise safety rules to help eliminate a provision that allows companies to self-affirm that food ingredients are safe.
The move would increase transparency for consumers as well as the FDA’s oversight of food ingredients considered to be safe, Kennedy said on Monday.
“For far too long, ingredient manufacturers and sponsors have exploited a loophole that has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the US food supply without notification to the FDA or the public,” he said in a statement.
Kennedy has promised to address an epidemic of chronic illness with Donald Trump’s backing, but his broad agenda from making food healthier to studying vaccines could clash with government spending cuts.
Currently, the FDA strongly encourages manufacturers to submit notices under a rule known as “substances generally recognized as safe”, but they can also self-affirm the use of a substance without notifying the FDA.
Eliminating this pathway would make it mandatory for companies that want to introduce new ingredients in foods to publicly notify the FDA of their intended use and submit underlying safety data, HHS said.
The FDA maintains a public inventory where all notices, supporting data, and response letters are available for review.
A federal judge on Monday declined to order president Donald Trump’s administration to restore thousands of foreign aid contracts and grants that have been cancelled since the president took office, though he found that the administration must speed up payments of close to $2bn for already completed work.
The ruling by US district judge Amir Ali in Washington is a setback for organisations that contract with or receive grants from the US Agency for International Development and the state department, and are suing the administration over its sudden freeze in January of nearly all of its foreign aid payments and subsequent termination of most of its agreements with third-party partners.
At the same time, Ali ruled against the Trump administration on a major legal issue, finding that the president cannot refuse to spend money appropriated by the US congress, Reuters reported.
The judge said that all of the appropriated foreign aid funding must ultimately be disbursed, while concluding that he could not dictate exactly how.
South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok said on Tuesday that US president Donald Trump’s “America First” policies had started targeting his country.
Choi said discussions with the United States over tariff measures and stronger cooperation on energy and shipbuilding were beginning ahead of “reciprocal tariffs” set to take effect on 2 April.
The US president announced a global regime of reciprocal tariffs on all US trading partners from 2 April.
Trump has threatened to impose “all-out pressure” on South Korea, Choi said, citing his comments to the U.S. Congress where he singled out the key US Asia ally for applying high tariffs.
Earlier this week, Choi ordered authorities to actively communicate with the Trump administration to resolve any misunderstanding about tariff rates.
US judge says Musk's DOGE must release records on operations run in 'secrecy'
A federal judge on Monday ordered the government-downsizing team created by US president Donald Trump and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk to make public records concerning its operations, which he said had been run in “unusual secrecy.”
US district judge Christopher Cooper in Washington sided with the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in finding that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was likely an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Reuters reported.
The ruling, the first of its kind, marked an early victory for advocates seeking to force DOGE to become more transparent about its role in the mass firings being conducted in the federal workforce and the dismantling of government agencies by the Republican president’s administration.
The Trump administration had argued that DOGE as an arm of the Executive Office of the President was not subject to FOIA, a law that allows the public to seek access to records produced by government agencies that they had not previously disclosed.
But Cooper, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, said that DOGE was exercising “substantial independent authority” much greater than the other components of that office that are usually exempt from FOIA’s requirements.
He said it “appears to have the power not just to evaluate federal programs, but to drastically reshape and even eliminate them wholesale,” a fact that the judge said the agency declined to refute.
He said its “operations thus far have been marked by unusual secrecy,” citing reports about DOGE’s use of an outside server, its employees refusal to identify themselves to career officials and their use of the encrypted app Signal to communicate.
US president Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will buy a new Tesla car to show support for the electric carmaker’s chief and his ally Elon Musk amid recent “Tesla Takedown” protests and the slump in the company’s stock price.
Musk’s role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at the behest of Trump has led to protests in the US against Tesla, Reuters reported.
About 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, last week, while nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March.
Musk is spearheading the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump defended Musk by saying he was “putting it on the line” to help the country and was doing a “fantastic” job.
“I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,” Trump said.
Musk thanked the president for his support on his own social media platform X.
The World Health Organization has started a process of fixing new priorities and announced a one-year limit on staff contracts, an internal memo showed on Tuesday, as it aims to make the UN agency more sustainable after the US withdrawal.
The memo, dated 10 March and signed by WHO’s Assistant Director-General Raul Thomas, laid out further cost-cutting measures – the latest in a series of such steps since US president Donald Trump’s announcement in January.
Senior WHO officials have begun “prioritisation” work over the past three weeks to make the global health agency sustainable, the document says.
“While operating in an extremely fluid environment, WHO’s senior management are working to navigate these shifting tides by undertaking a prioritisation process,” the memo said.
“Their work will ensure that every resource is directed toward the most pressing priorities while preserving WHO’s ability to make a lasting impact,” it said.
Mahmoud Khalil: arrest of Palestinian student activist raises alarm about free speech in US
Good morning, and welcome to our US politics blog.
The Trump administration’s decision to have immigration authorities arrest Mahmoud Khalil – a vocal critic of Israel’s war on Gaza – for alleged support of Hamas is an attack on free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union has warned.
Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, served as a lead negotiator for the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University last year, mediating between protesters and university administrators.
Khalil, a permanent US resident with a green card, was reportedly detained at his Columbia apartment building in Manhattan in front of his wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, on Saturday evening.
The Trump administration has not said Khalil is accused of or charged with a crime, but Trump wrote that his presence in the US was “contrary to national and foreign policy interests.” The US president said Khalil’s arrest was the “first arrest of many to come”.
The Department of Homeland Security accused the former student of “leading activities aligned to Hamas” but gave no details.
“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” said Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
“The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the US and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: the first amendment protects everyone in the US. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate.”
This morning, a federal judge in New York City ordered that Khalil not be deported for now and set a court hearing in the case for Wednesday.
The Education Department on Monday sent letters to 60 US universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Yale and four University of California schools, warning them of cuts in federal funding unless they addressed allegations of antisemitism on campus.
