What is USAid and why does Trump dislike it so much?
Donald Trump’s administration has confirmed plans to merge the US international aid agency USAid into the state department in a major revamp that would shrink its workforce and align its spending with Trump’s priorities.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, declared himself the acting administrator of the agency and employees have been locked out of its Washington DC headquarters, while others have been suspended.
Trump has entrusted Elon Musk, the billionaire heading his drive to shrink the federal government, to oversee the project. On Sunday, Trump said USAid had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out”, while Musk called it “a criminal organization” without providing any evidence and said it was “time for it to die”.
Rubio says El Salvador has offered to accept deportees as well as US criminals
US secretary of state Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.
President Nayib Bukele, “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said.
“He’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they’re US citizens or legal residents.”
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Trump has invited India's Modi to White House next week
US President Donald Trump has invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week, a White House official said, hours after a US military plane departed to return deported migrants to the country.
Trump spoke with Modi on 27 January, when he discussed immigration and stressed the importance of India buying more American-made security equipment and fair bilateral trading ties.
India, a strategic partner of the United States in its efforts to counter China, is keen to enhance trade relations with the US and make it easier for its citizens to get skilled worker visas.
It is also keen to avoid tariffs that Trump has threatened in the past, citing India’s high tariffs on US products.
The United States is India’s largest trading partner and two-way trade between the two countries surpassed $118bn in 2023/24, with India posting a trade surplus of $32bn.
US President Donald Trump on Monday said there is a lot of interest in TikTok, as his administration seeks to broker a sale of the popular app.
“GREAT INTEREST IN TIKTOK! Would be wonderful for China, and all concerned,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The app’s fate has been up in the air since a law requiring its Chinese owner ByteDance to either sell it on national security grounds or face a ban took effect on 19 January.
Trump, after taking office on 20 January, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law.
The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five US universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.
In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight ‘anti-Jewish bias’ on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department’s power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of its investigations, which stem from complaints.
In a statement, Craig Trainor, the the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said, “Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses,” said Craig Trainor, the agency’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
The department didn’t provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism amid protests against Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza. The searing hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia’s Minouche Shafik.
US Senate confirms fracking CEO Chris Wright to be Trump’s energy secretary
The US Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary. The vote was 59-38.
Wright, 60, the CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 has said he will step down from the company once confirmed. He wrote in a Liberty report last year that he believes human-caused climate change is real, but that its hazards are “distant and uncertain”. He has also said that top-down governmental policies to curb it are destined to fail.
However, Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either,” Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile in 2023.
Wright recently faced criticism from California senators when, shortly after the Palisades and Eaton fires devastated Los Angeles, he disputed the ties between climate change and more recent or severe wildfires, the Washington Post reported.
During Wright’s US Senate confirmation hearing, California senator Alex Padilla accused Wright of downplaying the real and deadly effects of wildfires. When the senator asked whether Wright stood by those comments in light of the catastrophic blazes in his home state, Wright responded that he believed that climate change was a global phenomenon and that he stood by his past comments.
Scientific studies contradict Wright’s claims. Climate change has, in fact, contributed to the increased frequency and severity of wildfires, including those in Los Angeles.
Mailed packages from China must undergo formal customs entry under new tariffs scheduled to be implemented on Tuesday, according to a notice from the US Customs and Border Protection posted online on Monday and seen by Reuters.
Chinese imports that are eligible for temporary duty exemptions will also be subject to US tariffs of 10%, the notice posted in the Federal Register said.
Donald Trump on Monday delayed implementation of tariffs on Canada and Mexico until 1 March, leaving only the Chinese packages affected for now.
CBP issued additional guidance for shippers on how to handle those shipments in light of the executive order on Chinese tariffs, and how to address with a manifest filed before the order takes effect.
“As we transition to execution of the Executive Order, it is extremely important that the trade maintain awareness of the shipments they are responsible for and are aware of the messaging that they are receiving from CBP,” it said.
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday appeared to pass her biggest test yet on the world stage by winning breathing room from US President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs, which risked ramming a wrecking ball through Mexico’s economy.
Some politicians and analysts commended the Mexican leader’s measured public tone and apparent ability to blunt Trump’s charge, Reuters reports, after she reached an agreement with the US president to pause tariffs for a month as Mexico sends 10,000 troops to the border to stop migrants crossing into the US and address drug smuggling.
“President Sheinbaum played it well. Masterfully,” Jorge Guajardo, a former Mexican ambassador to China and member of an opposition party, said on social media, adding that other world leaders “will see in Sheinbaum how to do it well.”
“Sheinbaum has taken a very cautious and strategic approach to the Trump administration,” said Lila Abed, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.
Abed pointed to Mexico’s ramped up fentanyl seizures in recent months, including its largest bust ever in December, as aiding Sheinbaum’s negotiation efforts.
“She’s been taking actions within her government to send a clear signal to the United States that it understands that fentanyl and organised crime are a top priority for the Trump administration,” said Abed.
Trump pauses tariffs on Canada and Mexico as China levies to go into effect Tuesday
If you’re just joining us, here is where things stand on Trump’s tariff threats:
Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.
It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday.
Following talks with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed at the last minute to hold off from imposing new duties on the two countries.
The agreements came on a day of extreme volatility in global financial markets as rattled investors reacted to the prospect of a dramatically escalating dispute involving the world’s largest economies.
The Guardian’s Tom Phillips, Richard Partington and Callum Jones report:
Interior department unveils orders aimed at carrying out Trump agenda
The US interior department has unveiled a suite of orders aimed at carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda to maximize domestic energy and minerals production and slash red tape, Reuters reports.
In a statement, the agency said interior secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, signed six orders on his first day in office.
They directed agency staff to identify emergency and legal authorities to speed project development and permitting in line with Trump’s energy emergency declaration and to eliminate burdensome regulations in part by reviewing appropriations under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act laws.
The statement said the agency would eliminate at least 10 regulations for every new one introduced.
One of the orders revoked Biden’s withdrawal of large areas of federal waters from new offshore oil and gas development, while another seeks to boost resource development on federal and state lands in Alaska.
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More now on the ACLU-led lawsuit, via the Associated Press:
In the lawsuit, the groups argued that immigration “even at elevated levels” does not constitute an invasion and noted that the number of people entering the country between the ports of entry had fallen to lows not seen since August 2020.
“The proclamation makes the sham claim of an invasion to justify wiping away all means of seeking asylum, with no regard for the fact that Congress has taken pains over four plus decades to create a safe haven for those fleeing danger,” said Lee Gelernt, lead attorney for the ACLU who’s argued many of the key asylum-related cases during the past two administrations.
“No President, including President Trump during his first Term, has ever claimed the power to unilaterally eliminate asylum.”
The groups argued that Trump’s declaration was an “extreme example of presidential overreach.” They said the government is “summarily expelling noncitizens” – often in just a few hours – without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum or other forms of protection they’re legally entitled to and without giving them the opportunity to make a phone call.
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ACLU sues government over asylum seeker access at southern border
Immigration advocacy groups on Monday sued the Trump administration over its ban on asylum access at the southern border, saying the sweeping restrictions illegally put people who are fleeing war and persecution in harm’s way, the Associated Press reports.
The decision outlined in one of Trump’s immigration-related executive orders is “as unlawful as it is unprecedented,” the groups – led by the American Civil Liberties Union – said in the complaint, filed in a Washington federal court.
“The government is doing just what Congress by statute decreed that the United States must not do. It is returning asylum seekers – not just single adults, but families too – to countries where they face persecution or torture, without allowing them to invoke the protections Congress has provided,” lawyers wrote.
The ACLU and other groups filed the complaint on behalf of Arizona-based Florence Project, El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Texas-based Raices.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that they do not comment on impending legislation.
In an executive order, Trump declared that the situation at the southern border constitutes an invasion of America and that he was “suspending the physical entry” of migrants until he decides it’s over.
The executive order also suspended the ability of migrants to ask for asylum.
In the executive order, Trump argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents the authority to suspend entry of any group that they finds “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
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The day so far
Canada and Mexico both reached deals with Donald Trump to temporarily halt tariffs. The president spoke with the leaders of both countries, which pledged to deploy troops along their borders, among other promises. Levies on China are still set to go into effect tomorrow. Meanwhile, confusion over the fate of USAid continued. Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, said he was taking over the agency and then named controversial figure Peter Marocco to be the deputy administrator.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Trump announced he’s planning to appoint Michael Ellis and the deputy director of the CIA. Ellis is a close Trump ally and worked in the president’s previous administration and helped fight allegations of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.
Senator Susan Collins, a republican from Maine, said she’ll vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. Collins is a key swing vote and her support brings Gabbard’s nomination close to being sealed.
Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, in alignment with mandates from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to slash federal agencies.
Musk’s Doge reportedly accessed administration systems for the federal Small Business Administration. It has also reportedly accessed secure information at USAid and the Treasury department. According to Wired, Musk has reportedly deployed six young men to lead Doge’s efforts to access federal government data.
The Trump administration made plain its intent to merge USAid with the state department under Musk’s supervision. Employees were barred from the agency headquarters today, after the website was shuttered over the weekend. Several democrats cried foul, calling the act illegal and denouncing Musk.
The Trump administration may today begin using an obscure 18th-century law to deport undocumented migrants without first going through the courts.
Darren Beattie, a former White House official who wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” is reportedly set for a top role at the state department.
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El Salvador and US close to finalizing migration agreement, says Bukele
El Salvador and the United States are close to finalizing an agreement on migration following US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to the Central American nation, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele said on Monday.
When asked by reporters if El Salvador would become a so-called safe third country to take US deportees from other countries, Bukele said that an agreement in the works would be even broader than that, adding Rubio would need to be the one to give further detail.
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Trump to appoint Michael Ellis serve as deputy CIA director
Trump has announced on Truth Social that he will appoint Michael Ellis as deputy CIA director.
He is legal counsel to Rumble, the social media platform said to be “immune to cancel culture”.
Ellis, according to Politico, is on the CIA landing team and held senior intelligence and policy roles on Trump’s first term national security council.
Trump said of Ellis, that he “helped expose abuses of the ‘unmasking’ process by the Obama administration at the beginning of the Russia, Russia, Russia, Hoax”.
According to Politico:
Before that, he served as the top lawyer to partisan firebrand Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a close Trump ally who as House Intelligence Committee chair helped fight allegations the then-president’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
Ellis’ work pushing back against the Trump-Russia investigation for Nunes was viewed as a major plus for incoming CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump, according to one of the two people.
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Marco Rubio has authorized the controversial figure of Peter Marocco to be the deputy administrator of USAid, according to CBS. Rubio, the secretary of state, and now head of USAid, penned a letter to Congress saying that he’s delegating authority to Marocco to be the director of foreign assistance for the aid agency.
“Current foreign assistance processes are severely inefficient and do not substantially benefit the American people,” Rubio wrote. “This undermines the president’s ability to carry out foreign relations.”
Rubio said that Marocco will begin the process of a “potential reorganization of USAid’s activities to maximize efficiency”.
Marocco has long led the fight against USAid. He’s a Trump ally who served in the first administration in various capacities, including USAid’s assistant to the administration. Throughout his time at the agency, he advocated for a full-scale freeze on overseas aid. Marocco was also identified as allegedly being present at the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
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Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.
It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday.
Following talks with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed to hold off from imposing new duties on the two countries.
The agreements came on a day of extreme volatility in global financial markets as rattled investors reacted to the prospect of a dramatically escalating dispute involving the world’s largest economies.
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Senator Susan Collins says she’ll vote yes to approve Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. The Maine senator was one of few Republican holdouts and her decision now makes Gabbard’s nomination that much closer to being sealed.
Collins said she knows how critical the role is and that she and Gabbard share similar visions. “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, has become far larger than it was designed to be,” Collins said in a statement. “Ms Gabbard shares my vision of returning the agency to its intended size.”
Collins initially had concerns about Gabbard’s views on National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, but through various discussions she said those concerns have been ameliorated. Gabbard has also long supported Snowden, and during her confirmation hearings she acknowledged he had “broken the law”, but she refused to call him a “traitor” – a view taken by many politicians in the US.
Gabbard has also been cast by her critics as someone unfit to serve as the director of national intelligence. She’s made past statements praising Vladimir Putin and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
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Trump to postpone Canada tariffs for at least 30 days, Trudeau says
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on X:
I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.
In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a Fentanyl Czar, we will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada- U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering. I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl and we will be backing it with $200 million.
Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together.
Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly turning its sights on the Department of Education. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, officials are looking at an executive order that could undo the department. The move is part of Elon Musk’s strategy to slash federal agencies as the head of the “department of government efficiency”.
This executive order would reportedly shutter all parts of the agency that aren’t explicitly written into a statute, the Journal reports.
While campaigning for president, Trump said the Department of Education was something he was looking to eliminate. It’s unclear if he’ll be able to do that with an executive order. Much of the department is written into statute, including grants for low-income students and enforcing laws around civil rights and for students with disabilities.
The details of the order and the timing of its release are still up in the air. The White House didn’t respond to request for comment.
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In an unusual public letter, Ed Martin, the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, has warned that his office will prosecute anyone who interferes with the work of Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency” (Doge).
“I recognize that some of the staff at DOGE has been targeted publicly. At this time, I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers. Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws,” Martin wrote in the letter to Musk, which he also posted on X.
“Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people. We will not act like the previous administration who looked the other way as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city. We will protect DOGE and other workers no matter what.”
Donald Trump appointed Martin, formerly the chair of Missouri’s Republican party and a promoter of the president’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election, as the top federal prosecutor for Washington DC on an interim basis.
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Wired reports that six young men are leading efforts by the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to access federal government data.
Among them is Edward Coristine, who PBS News just reported relayed the demand that the Small Business Administration open up its systems to Doge. The rest are recent college or high school graduates, Wired reports, who appear to have little of the sort of managerial experience normally required of federal officials. Here’s more:
WIRED has identified six young men – all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records – who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer.
The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. None have responded to requests for comment from WIRED. Representatives from OPM, GSA, and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment.
…
Bobba has attended UC Berkeley, where he was in the prestigious Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program. According to a copy of his now-deleted LinkedIn obtained by WIRED, Bobba was an investment engineering intern at the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund as of last spring and was previously an intern at both Meta and Palantir. He was a featured guest on a since-deleted podcast with Aman Manazir, an engineer who interviews engineers about how they landed their dream jobs, where he talked about those experiences last June.
Coristine, as WIRED previously reported, appears to have recently graduated from high school and to have been enrolled at Northeastern University. According to a copy of his résumé obtained by WIRED, he spent three months at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company, last summer.
Both Bobba and Coristine are listed in internal OPM records reviewed by WIRED as “experts” at OPM, reporting directly to Amanda Scales, its new chief of staff. Scales previously worked on talent for xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, and as part of Uber’s talent acquisition team, per LinkedIn. Employees at GSA tell WIRED that Coristine has appeared on calls where workers were made to go over code they had written and justify their jobs. WIRED previously reported that Coristine was added to a call with GSA staff members using a nongovernment Gmail address. Employees were not given an explanation as to who he was or why he was on the calls.
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"Department of government efficiency" accesses Small Business Administration systems – report
The federal Small Business Administration has agreed to a request from an official with the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) for “access to all [administration] systems”, PBS News reports.
The request was relayed by Edward Coristine, an official with the initiative chaired by Elon Musk, who asked for details of payment systems and employees, PBS reports.
Doge has been reported to have accessed secure information at USAid and the Treasury department, including a system the government uses to disburse trillions of dollars in payments.
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Progressives lawmakers are denouncing Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency” after news broke yesterday that the billionaire’s associates have received access to the federal payment system, potentially exposing the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans.
“Donald Trump has given unprecedented power over the federal government to an unelected, unaccountable billionaire. Elon Musk’s treasury raid jeopardizes Americans’ sensitive information, tax returns, and Medicare and Social Security,” said representative Greg Casar, a Democrat of Texas and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Casar added, “Progressives will fight this in the courts, on the House floor, and with every tool at our disposal until Elon Musk is out of our government and no longer putting taxpayers, the sick, and the elderly at risk.”
Democratic lawmakers turned away from USAid headquarters
Democratic lawmakers attempted to enter USAid’s Washington DC headquarters this afternoon to meet with employees, but were refused entry.
Senator Chris Van Hollen said they were turned away on the orders of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge), which is said to have taken over USAid and other parts of the federal government in a campaign sanctioned by Donald Trump to dramatically shrink the federal government.
“We asked to enter the Aid building, really on behalf of the American people, but to talk to Aid employees, because … there’s been a gag order imposed on Aid employees. So we wanted to learn first-hand what’s happening,” Van Hollen told reporters.
“We were denied entry based on the order that they received from Elon Musk and Doge, which just goes to show that this was an illegal power grab by someone who contributed $267bn to the Trump effort in these elections.”
Van Hollen, who represents Maryland, a state where many employees of USAid and other federal agencies live, said Democrats would go to court to prevent the aid agency from being folded into the state department.
“Trying to shut down an agency which was established under law … that is totally against a variety of statutes, and there will be legal proceedings filed to stop them from essentially undoing Aid,” Van Hollen said. “They want to do that, they come to Congress, they make a proposal, we vote on it. I can assure you that change that they’re trying to do here illegally would not get through the United States Congress.”
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Marco Rubio says he's taken over USAid, argues for integrating with the state department
Marco Rubio told reporters that he has been named acting director of USAid, and argued that the agency tasked with implementing much of the United States’s foreign aid program would function better under the state department.
“I’m the acting director of USAid. I’ve delegated that authority to someone, but I stay in touch with him,” the secretary of state told reporters during his trip to El Salvador.
He aired his grievances with USAid, whose days as a stand-alone agency appear numbered:
My frustration with USAid goes back to my time in Congress. It’s a completely unresponsive agency. It’s supposed to respond to policy directives at the state department, and it refuses to do so … There are a lot of functions of USAid that are going to continue. They’re going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy. I said very clearly … during my confirmation hearing, that every dollar we spend and every program we fund that will be aligned with the national interest of the United States, and USAid has a history of sort of ignoring that and deciding that there’s somehow a global charity separate from the national interest.
These are taxpayer dollars, and so I’m very troubled by these reports that they’ve been unwilling to cooperate with people who are asking simple questions about, what does this program do? Who gets the money? Who are our contractors? Who’s funded?
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The chaos at USAid has prevented a vital tool for monitoring and preventing famines from functioning, the Guardian’s Fred Harter reports:
The system for monitoring global food crises appears to have been suspended after Donald Trump’s executive order froze US foreign aid.
The website for the US-funded famine early warning systems network (Fews Net) was not accessible on Friday. A banner said reports and data were “currently unavailable” without elaborating.
Fews Net is considered the most important tool for judging levels of hunger and preventing deadly famines. Its data helps humanitarian organisations decide how to distribute food aid to tens of millions of people around the world.
The organisations fear suspending Fews Net will put lives at risk when hunger levels are near an all-time high. Parts of war-struck Sudan have tipped into famine, while 2 million people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are expected to face starvation by the middle of this year.
Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development, said: “Fews Net is a vital live-saving tool. It allows food to be shipped and support to be put in place before a food shortage or crop failure turns into famine.
“Without Fews Net,” he added, “global humanitarian responders will be flying blind, with less advance warning of where famine could strike.”
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Elon Musk spent the weekend attacking USAid with posts on X, including by describing the aid administrator as “beyond repair”. Here’s more, from Reuters:
Elon Musk, who is heading Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, has said they are working to shut down the foreign aid agency USAid, in a social media discussion on X early on Monday.
The conversation, which included former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican senator Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, began with Musk saying they were working to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).
“It’s beyond repair,” Musk said, adding that Trump agreed it should be shut down.
On Sunday, Reuters reported the Trump administration removed two top security officials at USAid during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from billionaire Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said.
USAid is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72bn of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
The website of USAid appeared to still be offline on Saturday and some users could not access it on Sunday. USAid has a staff of more than 10,000 people.
The day so far
Donald Trump has agreed to press pause for a month on his plan to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico, after reaching a deal with the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, for her country to deploy troops to its border with the United States. But levies on China and Canada are set to go into force tomorrow, and stock markets have been gyrating all day in advance of what traders view as an unwelcome economic development. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made plain its intent to merge USAid with the state department under Elon Musk’s supervision, after barring employees from its headquarters today and taking down its website over the weekend. Democrats have cried foul, with one senator vowing to gum up the works in the chamber unless Trump relents.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The Trump administration may today begin using an obscure 18th-century law to deport undocumented migrants without first going through the courts.
Darren Beattie, a former White House official who wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” is reportedly set for a top role at the state department.
Ontario’s premier has barred government business with US firms, cancelled a contract with Starlink and taken American liquor off the shelves in response to Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
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In response to Elon Musk’s Trump-sanctioned meddling in USAid, the Wall Street Journal reports that Democratic senator Brian Schatz has vowed to prevent quick confirmation of the president’s picks for state department roles.
By blocking unanimous consent in the chamber, Schatz will forced Republicans to use floor time to confirm state department nominees, which will delay the passage of legislation.
“I will oppose unanimous consent,” Schatz told the Journal. “I will vote no. I will do maximal delays until this is resolved.”
Trump administration puts Musk in charge of potential merger of USAid, state department
The Trump administration has put Elon Musk in charge of a potential merger of USAid into the state department, Reuters reports.
Citing a senior White House official, the combination would “significantly reduce the size of the workforce [of USAid] for efficiency purposes”, and the administration plans to soon send formal notification to Congress of the move.
The plans comes as employees of the agency tasked with administering the United State’s foreign aid programs have been locked out of their offices, and the agency’s website has been taken down. Here’s more:
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Official who wrote 'competent white men must be in charge' set for state department role - report
Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House official who was fired for attending a conference with white nationalists, is set to be appointed to a senior state department role, Semafor reports.
The appointment has not yet been made public, but Semafor says secretary Marco Rubio plans to name Beattie as acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Beattie has made a number of controversial statements in public, including comparing “the coordinated efforts of government bureaucrats, NGOs, and the media to oust President Trump” to Western-backed pro-democracy efforts in eastern Europe. Last October, he wrote this on X:
Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.
Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.
This is far from the first time that Mexico has deployed troops to its borders to stop migrants, at the behest of the United States.
At the start of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021, Mexico agreed to send soldiers to its southern border stop migrants heading north to the United States. Migrants arrivals in the United States nonetheless surged during Biden’s term, and the issue was successfully used by Donald Trump to win re-election.
This time, Mexico will deploy troops to its northern border with the United States in exchange for a one-month reprieve from Trump’s tariffs. The president has also sent active-duty US soldiers to its side of the border, with the task of stopping migrants. Here’s more on that:
US stock indices have clawed back much of their losses after Donald Trump announced a pause on his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico, while the peso has also rallied.
However, tariffs on Canada and Mexico are still scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday. Our business blog has more:
In a post on X, Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said that the United States had agreed to take action on preventing guns from flowing into her country.
She added that the countries’ dialogue will focus on “security and trade”. The 25% tariffs that were supposed to begin on Tuesday are now paused for a month from today.
Trump says he held off on tariffs after Mexico agreed to deploy troops to border
Donald Trump has confirmed his administration will hold off on imposing tariffs on Mexico for one month, after Claudia Sheinbaum’s government agreed to deploy troops to its border with the United States.
Here’s Trump’s full statement, from Truth Social:
I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States. These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country. We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico. I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a “deal” between our two Countries.
Mexico's president says Trump has agreed to one-month pause on tariffs
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said Donald Trump has agreed to hold off imposing tariffs for one month, Reuters reports.
Trump and the White House did not immediately confirm the pause. Sheinbaum said the deal was reached after she spoke on the phone to the US president, but it was unclear what Mexico offered in return.
In response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada, the premier of the most populous province Ontario says he’s banning government contracts with American firms, and canceling a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink, the Associated Press reports.
Here’s more:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who said he is also banning American companies from provincial contracts, signed a $100-million Canadian (US$68 million) with Musk’s company in November to deliver high-speed internet to remote residents in rural and northern Ontario.
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford said in a post on X.
Ford said U.S.-based businesses will lose out on “tens of billions of dollars” in new revenues as a result of Ontario’s response. “They only have President Trump to blame,” he said.
Ontario and other provinces already planned to remove American liquor brands from government store shelves. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario sells nearly $1 billion worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers every year, Ford pointed.
“Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it,” said Ford, who called an election for his province last week.
As predicted, Donald Trump’s salvo of tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China has caused US stock indices to fall – but not by a huge amount.
We have a separate live blog covering all the action on Wall Street, and you can read it here:
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said he had spoken to Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau today, and that they’ll talk again at 3pm.
Ottawa, along with plenty of US businesses, is digesting the impact of the tariffs Trump levied on them over the weekend.
The invocation of the Alien Enemies Act was one of Donald Trump’s first moves upon being sworn in, though he delayed its implementation by two weeks, to today.
Trump has done plenty and said even more since his 20 January return to the White House, and we’ve built a tracker to organize it all. Have a look:
Trump expected to use Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations
Donald Trump may as soon as today make good on his campaign promise to use an obscure 18th-century law to make it easier to deport undocumented immigrants, Reuters reports.
After being sworn in, the president gave federal agencies until 3 February to prepare to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a law that will allow migrants suspected of illegal activity to be deported without the court hearing that typically must occur first. Use of the law, which has been used to justify the second world war internments of Americans of Japanese descent, is expected to face legal challenges.
Here’s more, from Reuters:
After taking office, Trump ordered military and immigration officials to be ready by Feb. 3 to implement the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, last used to justify internment camps for people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two. The move - which would almost certainly face legal challenges - could allow him to bypass due process rights and rapidly remove migrants.
Trump, a Republican, stormed back into the White House promising to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally - an action he said was necessary after high levels of illegal immigration under Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump issued a flurry of executive actions to redirect military resources to support the mass deportation effort and empowered U.S. immigration officers to make more arrests, including at schools, churches and hospitals - even though those specific measures are unpopular and highly contested by civil and immigrant rights groups.
But even with Trump’s sweeping early actions, his administration will have to contend with overwhelmed immigration courts where asylum cases can take years to resolve. Trump expanded a fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal, but it only applies to those in the U.S. for two years or less and still gives migrants the ability to claim asylum.
The Alien Enemies Act could allow Trump to rapidly deport migrants deemed part of an “invasion or predatory incursion” - a novel use of a law previously only invoked in wartime. Republicans frequently refer to illegal immigration as an invasion and portray migrants as dangerous criminals and “military-aged.”
Updated
Donald Trump views Elon Musk as doing his “dirty work” in launching an unprecedented takeover of federal government operations, the Washington Post reports.
Musk, who was Trump’s top donor in the presidential campaign, has reportedly gained access to a secure system the Treasury uses to process payments, and taken over access to USAID, which he has condemned as “a criminal organization”.
While Trump has been making his own norm-shattering moves since returning to the White House, he’s given Musk a fairly long leash to accomplish his goal of transforming the federal government, according to the Post:
Trump is not closely monitoring Musk’s moves, according to people close to the president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. But the people said Trump views Musk as doing the task he assigned him, and the president benefits from letting someone else take the heat for drastic and controversial measures. One adviser described Musk as doing “the dirty work,” noting that his public approval ratings were dropping.
One place we will see immediate impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs on the United State’s top trading partners: Wall Street.
Stock trading has not yet begun for the day, but futures indicates markets are primed for a sell off, albeit not necessarily a huge one.
The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average is down 1.3% in pre-market trading and the broad-based S&P 500 is 1.5% lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is 1.7% lower.
That markets have not sold off more is perhaps an indication that traders do not quite believe these tariffs will stick. We’ll see if that optimism lasts throughout the day.
Political website The Hill is this morning carrying some quotes from Democratic strategist Christy Setzer, who has expressed frustration at the tactics being employed by Democratic party representatives and senators in assisting Donald Trump in assembling his administration. She says:
Democratic leadership acts like it’s permanently 2006, a year when, yes, we took back the Senate, but also before the Republican party found a cult leader and lost its collective minds.
We don’t live in that world any more. We have a lifelong conman and convicted felon in the Oval Office who tries every day to turn this country into a dictatorship; let’s start acting like it.
That means you can’t be mad about Trump trying to freeze government spending in the morning, and vote for his Treasury secretary – who will destroy the economy – in the afternoon. Stop helping Trump.
My colleague Jon Henley has written this round-up of European reaction this morning to Donald Trump’s threat to impose trade tariffs on the European Union.
There has been some other reaction in Europe to the prospect of trade wars, with Donald Trump’s administration having imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, and threatening action against the European Union.
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said if the US and Europe started a trade war “then the one laughing on the side is China”.
“We are very interlinked. We need America, and America needs us as well,” Reuters reports she added.
Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk said any attempt at waging trade wars is a complete mistake, while Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo said Europe should negotiate with Trump on trade.
Trump told reporters on Sunday, reiterating complaints about a trade deficit, that “[Tariffs] will definitely happen with the European Union. I can tell you that because they’ve really taken advantage of us. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing and we take everything from them.”
USAid staff locked out of Washington HQ on Monday morning
Staff at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday, according to a notice distributed to them, the Associated Press reports.
USAid staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails in the agency system saying that “at the direction of agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to agency personnel on Monday, 3 February.”
Earlier on Monday morning, during a live broadcast on the social media platform that he owns, Elon Musk said that Donald Trump had agreed “we should shut [USAid] down”. On Sunday Musk called it “a criminal organization.”
USAid was established in 1961 by president John F Kennedy, and is one of the world’s largest distributors of financial aid, handling a budget of about $50bn.
Updated
Oliver Milman reports from New York
For several years, Republicans accused Joe Biden of waging a “war on energy” even as the Untied States drilled more oil and gas than at any time in its history. Now, a more tangible assault is gathering pace under Donald Trump – aimed squarely at wind, solar and other cleaner forms of power.
In the first two weeks of his return as president, Trump has, like his first term, issued orders to open up more American land and waters for fossil fuel extraction and started the process to yank the US from the Paris climate agreement. “We will drill, baby drill,” said Trump, who has promised to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 18 months.
But Trump has this time also launched a blitzkrieg against renewable energy, with his department of interior temporarily suspending all clean energy development – but tellingly not oil and gas – on federal land.
You can read more of Oliver Milman’s report here: How Trump is targeting wind and solar energy – and delighting big oil
Trump and Trudeau to speak on Monday over US-Canada tariffs
US president Donald Trump and Canada’s outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to speak on Monday after the Trump administration imposed sweeping trade tariffs on its neighbor.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday night as he flew back to Washington from Florida, APF reports Trump told reporters he would be “speaking with prime minister Trudeau tomorrow morning, and I’m also speaking with Mexico tomorrow morning.”
Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that it is not known who requested the call, noting that on Saturday Trudeau said he had been “reaching out to speak with Donald Trump” since the US president’s inauguration, but the conversation hadn’t happened.
Over the weekend, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs, Trudeau announced a 25% tariff phased in across C$155bn ($107bn) worth of American products.
Some Canadian citizens have taken trade matters into their own hands after Trump announced the tariffs, by boycotting goods from the US.
Reuters spoke to one Calgary resident, Ken Lima-Coelho, who said “There’s nothing I can do about this quagmire that we now find ourselves in politically with the regime next door. But I can change which toothpaste I buy … and that gives us something to do while hopefully our political and business leaders sort this out.”
In January, Trudeau announced that he would stand down as Canada’s prime minister once his ruling Liberal party had appointed a new leader. Canada’s parliament has been suspended until 24 March.
Over the weekend Trump again threatened Canada, claiming that the US pays “hundreds of billions of dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada” and that “without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable country”. He reiterated his expansionist suggestion – on top of previous threats to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland – that Canada should become the 51st state of the US.
ABC News reports that it has obtained an email in which the Department of Health and Human Services has directed recipients of grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to immediately halt all US government activities related to what it called “gender ideology.”
The news network reports that the email says:
You must immediately terminate, to the maximum extent, all programs, personnel, activities, or contracts promoting or inculcating gender ideology at every level and activity, regardless of your location or the citizenship of employees or contractors, that are supported with funds from this award.
Any vestige, remnant, or re-named piece of any gender ideology programs funded by the US government under this award are immediately, completely, and permanently terminated.
Macron: Trump's threat of EU tariffs is pushing Europe to be stronger and more united
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz and France’s president Macron have both given some reaction to Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, and threat to do the same to the European Union.
If Europe is attacked on commercial interests, it will have to make itself respected, Reuters reports Macron said. Recent declarations from the US were pushing Europe to be stronger and more united, he added.
Scholz said the European Union was strong enough to react to any US tariffs but “the goal should be that things result in cooperation.”
The two men were speaking ahead of an informal gathering of European leaders in Brussels.
Germany’s opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who hopes to be chancellor after Germany’s election on 23 February, has said he hoped Trump would realise the tariffs he imposes “will not have to be paid by those who import into America. Instead, they will have to be paid for by consumers in America.”
On Sunday Trump threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that the EU will face levies.
European stock markets have suffered turmoil on Monday morning amid the fears of a trade war, and the impact on European companies of tariffs levied by the US on its neighbors.
Democrat senators demand Robert F Kennedy recuse himself from vaccine-related matters if confirmed
Two US senators who will vote this week on whether to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination as the top US health official demanded on Monday that he recuse himself from all agency matters related to vaccines.
Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that Kennedy has unscientific views about their safety and stands poised to benefit financially from such decisions.
Reuters reports the pair also asked that Kennedy, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, pledge not to engage in lawsuits involving vaccines for at least four years after leaving office.
The Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday reiterated Denmark’s position that Greenland was “not for sale”, despite Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that it be acquired by the US for strategic reasons.
Speaking in Brussels ahead of a European leaders meeting, Reuters reports Frederiksen as saying “Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it’s not for sale.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said last week Trump’s interest in acquiring the island was “not a joke”.
Greenland harbours some of the largest deposits of rare-earth metals. Denmark granted the island limited self-government in 1979, 26 years after it was incorporated into the country by the Danish constitution.
Updated
NBC News has reported overnight that dozens of education department employees who attended a diversity training course during Donald Trump’s first term has president have been put on leave.
A letter to the affected employees obtained by the news network said they would continue to receive their full salaries and benefits and wouldn’t be required to do any work-related tasks.
Citing union sources, Yamiche Alcindor reported that “at least 55 employees had been placed on leave as of Friday evening.”
Sheria Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents hundreds of Education Department employees, said:
It looks like they’re entrapping people, because they encouraged people to take these trainings. [They are] now maybe using these trainings as a basis to put them on administrative leave.
Updated
Ramaphosa rejects Trump's land confiscation claim after US president says he will block all funding to South Africa
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that the country is confiscating land.
AFP reports that Ramaphosa said he was ready to explain his government’s land reform policy to his US counterpart.
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.
“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump wrote.
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument,” Ramaphosa’s statement said in response on Monday.
It is a “constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution”.
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest,” it said.
The recently passed act stipulates the South African government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to seize in the public interest.
Land redistribution policy in South Africa has long been contentious.
Most farmland in the country is still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid.
Conservatives have for years opposed attempts to redress the inequality. Donald Trump’s wealthy unelected adviser Elon Musk was born in the country.
Trump announces he is cutting off all funding to South Africa over land policy
US President Donald Trump has asserted South Africa is “confiscating” land and “treating certain classes of people very badly” as he announced he was cutting off all future funding to the country pending an investigation.
“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month signed a bill that stipulates the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.
Trump’s unelected billionaire adviser Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, was born in South Africa.
Read more here: Trump says he is cutting off funding to South Africa over land ‘confiscations’
WHO director-general appeals for leaders to pressure Trump to reverse withdrawal decision
The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed to leaders to pressure the Donald Trump administration to reverse its decision to pull out of the UN’s health agency.
“Bringing the US back will be very important,” Associated Press reports Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attenders of a budget meeting. “And on that, I think all of you can play a role.”
The US has been WHO’s biggest donor by far, with one official telling Associated Press that “the roof is on fire” with regard to the agency’s budget.
Among other health crises, WHO is working to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus in Tanzania, Ebola in Uganda and mpox in Congo.
A budget document presented at the meeting said responses in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan were at risk, in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars lost by polio-eradication and HIV programs.
The director-general said the agency is still providing US scientists with some data.
“We continue to give them information because they need it,” Tedros said, urging member countries to contact US officials. “We would appreciate it if you continue to push and reach out to them to reconsider.”
Secretary of State Rubio threatens Panama over Chinese influence
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has threatened Panama over what he said was Chinese influence over the operation of the Panama Canal.
Rubio told Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino that Donald Trump believed China’s presence in the canal area may violate the treaty that handed control of the waterway to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the canal, which was built by the US.
“Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the US to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the treaty,” the state department said in a summary of the meeting.
The read-out from the Panama side was less blunt, with Mulino telling reporters Rubio made “no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force.”
He said his talks with Rubio were “respectful” and “positive”.
The US last invaded Panama in 1989, in what was then the biggest US military operation since the Vietnam war.
Musk: Trump has agreed that USAid be shut down
Unelected billionaire Elon Musk has said that he has discussed the future of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) with president Donald Trump, who has agreed “we should shut it down.”
Associated Press reports that during a call on the social media platform that Musk owns, X, Musk said:
It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair. We’re shutting it down.
On Sunday Musk had written on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “USAid is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”
The agency’s website vanished Saturday without explanation, and the president said on Sunday night that it had been “run by a bunch of radical lunatics.”
The agency has a budget of over $50bn and is one of the largest foreign aid agencies in the world.
On 26 January the state department issued a statement saying that it was “pausing all US foreign assistance … for review.”
It said that newly appointed secretary of state Marco Rubio was “initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with US foreign policy under the America First agenda.”
Senior USAid officials put on leave after denying access to Musk’s Doge team
Andrew Roth in Washington reports for the Guardian:
Two senior security officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been put on administrative leave after they blocked efforts by members of Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge) to access sensitive data from the agency, five current and former USAid officials have told the Guardian.
The demands led to a tense standoff during which a senior deputy to Musk threatened to call the US marshals in to grant access to the building. The officials said John Voorhees, USAid’s director of security, and a deputy blocked efforts by Doge members to physically access restricted areas.
The confrontation and Voorhees’ suspension was first reported by CNN and confirmed by USAid officials. The Doge officials gained control over the access control system, which would allow them to lock out employees and read emails. They also sought personnel files and turnstile data, two people said.
Musk’s deputies may also have sought access to Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs, and servers used to access sensitive cables with top-secret classifications. Four members of Doge have been granted regular access to USAid as the administration has suspended dozens of senior staff and furloughed hundreds more at the bureau for humanitarian assistance who help the agency respond to urgent crises around the world.
Read more from Andrew Roth’s report here: Senior USAid officials put on leave after denying access to Musk’s Doge team
Shares in some of the biggest European carmakers slumped on Monday.
Reuters reports some analysts believe that Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexico could be more damaging for European carmakers and their suppliers than any direct tariffs on EU goods.
Reuters has gathered together some European reaction to Donald Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
France’s central bank governor François Villeroy de Galhau told France Info the tariffs “will increase economic uncertainty” and were a worrying development.
A government spokesperson in the UK said Britain has a “fair and balanced” trading relationship which “benefits both sides of the Atlantic”, describing the US as “an indispensable ally and one of our closest trading partners.”
On Sunday the British prime minister Keir Starmer told reporters “It is early days. What I want to see is strong trading relations. In the discussions that I have had with president Trump, that is what we have centered on, a strong trading relationship. So it is very early days.”
Trump has appeared to take a softer line on the UK, citing his relationship with Starmer while saying tariffs still “might happen”.
“The UK is out of line but I’m sure that one, I think that one can be worked out,” Trump said. “Prime minister Starmer’s been very nice, we’ve had a couple of meetings, we’ve had numerous phone calls, we’re getting along very well, we’ll see whether or not we can balance out our budget.”
US markets expected to show drop as world reacts to Trump trade war tariffs
European stock markets are a sea of red in early trading, after Donald Trump rattled investors by signing off on tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico last weekend. The US stock market is also heading for heavy falls when it opens later.
The UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which tracks the one hundred largest companies listed in London, has fallen by 1.25% at the start of trading.
Metal prices have also fallen today, as president Trump’s 10% tariff on imports from China rattles the markets.
The developments follow a day of turmoil on Asian markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 share index has closed for the day down 2.66%. Shares of Japanese and South Korean automakers and their suppliers led declines in Asia.
The US dollar shot to a record high against the Chinese yuan in offshore trading, and its highest against the Canadian dollar since 2003 and the strongest against the Mexican peso since 2022.
Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at interactive investor said:
February seems likely to begin with a Trump tariff tantrum, with very early futures prices signalling declines of more than 600 points for the Dow Jones, and declines of 2% or more for the benchmark S&P500 and Nasdaq indices.
Welcome and opening summary …
Welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of US politics news for Monday. Here are the headlines …
Asian markets tumbled in early trade on Monday after the Donald Trump administration tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China sparked fears of an escalating global trade war.
Trump has threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that new tariffs on the European Union will “definitely happen”
Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said her government will provide more details on the retaliatory tariffs she ordered on US goods on Monday
A Wall Street Journal editorial has called Trump’s tariffs the “dumbest trade war in history”
Two senior security officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been put on administrative leave after they blocked efforts by members of Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge) to access sensitive data from the agency, five current and former USAid officials have told the Guardian
