President Donald Trump’s launched a trade war Tuesday against America’s three biggest trading partners, drawing immediate retaliation from Mexico, Canada and China and sending financial markets into a tailspin.
Also, Trump will stand before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to give an accounting of his turbulent first weeks in office as a divided nation struggles to keep pace, with some Americans fearing for the country’s future while others are cheering him on.
Here's the latest:
Secretary of state reaffirms US support for Israel
Marco Rubio told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it’s a “top priority” for the Trump administration amid uncertainty over the future of a ceasefire in Gaza.
The State Department said Tuesday that Rubio had spoken with Netanyahu to thank him for cooperating with Trump administration’s proposal for an extension of the ceasefire with Hamas that expired on Saturday. It also said Rubio told Netanyahu that “he anticipates close coordination in addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for a stable region.”
The call came after an announcement by Rubio on Saturday that he had signed off on emergency determinations to expedite military assistance, including 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs, to Israel without congressional review. The actual approvals were done on Friday.
Key Pentagon nominee calls Russia a threat
Trump’s nominee for the top policy job at the Pentagon told senators after persistent questioning that Russia presents a significant military threat to Europe and the U.S. homeland and that Moscow’s forces did invade Ukraine.
On multiple occasions Tuesday, Elbridge Colby declined to answer directly whether Russia invaded Ukraine, saying it’s a sensitive topic and he didn’t want to say anything that might hurt the chances for peace.
In only one instance — when Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, pressed him, asking, “In February 2022, did Russian forces cross the border and invade Ukraine? Yes or no?” — he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that she was “describing a factual reality” that is “demonstrably true.”
When asked about Trump’s decision Monday to pause military aid to Kyiv, Colby said the president has a plan to end the war and ensure a secure and sovereign Ukraine.
Scores of fired federal workers will be in the audience for Trump’s speech
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he would bring two such constituents.
Alissa Ellman, is a disabled Army veteran diagnosed with a rare cancer associated with burn pit exposure. She was fired from her job in Buffalo helping fellow veterans obtain benefits.
Tiffany Ramos was fired from her job in Syracuse helping farms and rural businesses get financial support.
They demonstrate “the real and devastating human impact of Trump’s cruel and shortsighted policies and the destructive cuts,” Schumer said.
A few former park rangers will be in the audience as well as former VA workers.
Rep. Eric Sorensen of Illinois invited James Diaz, a disabled veteran who worked as a fuel compliance officer at the IRS.
Speaker Johnson says Elon Musk will meet with House Republicans to answer questions about DOGE
Asked about a potential visit by Musk on Wednesday, Johnson said he was “coming to give everyone an update.”
“The closer we coordinate with what DOGE is doing and with the House, the better off the country is because we’ll be able again to make these big savings from fraud, waste and abuse permanent in the budgeting process,” Johnson said.
Some Democratic lawmakers will be boycotting Trump’s address to Congress
Among them, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., said: “Donald Trump and Elon Musk are destroying the state of the union. I don’t need to be there to watch him claim otherwise.”
Two lawmakers representing districts in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia also won’t be there. Rep. Gerry Connolly said he’s never missed the address before, but the chaos unleashed on his constituents demands more. Meanwhile, Rep. Don Beyer, said he’d be rallying this week with federal workers and contractors.
“I will choose our community over President Donald Trump every single day,” Beyer said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. tweeted “I’ll start attending when he starts following the law.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, also says she won’t be attending.
“Instead, I’m meeting with constituents who have been harmed by this administration’s reckless firings and its illegal and ongoing funding freeze across government,” Murry said.
Speaker encourages House GOP to skip town halls after protests
Mike Johnson is encouraging Republicans to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying the Trump administration’s slashing of federal government.
The GOP speaker is echoing the president’s claims that the demonstrations are fueled by professional protesters.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Johnson said at a press conference.
Republicans are finding themselves at a loss to explain the DOGE cuts that are leaving federal workers suddenly out of jobs from coast to coast.
It’s all reminiscent of Trump’s first term when Democrats badgered Republicans for trying to do away with the Affordable Care Act -- and ended up winning back control of the House in the midterm elections.
Trudeau says Canada’s counter tariffs will impact more than $100B of US goods
The Canadian prime minister says the country’s tariffs will be rolled out over the course of 21 days.
“Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend,” he said. “At the same, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying murderous dictator. Make that make sense.”
Read more about the tariffs.
Trump’s NATO ambassador nominee says he’s confident allies will pay more
Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general in Trump’s first term, was speaking Tuesday to lawmakers at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination.
Whitaker spoke more positively of NATO than have Trump and ally Elon Musk, who’ve questioned the value of the alliance to the U.S.
Whitaker told senators a big part of his job would be ensuring each NATO ally reaches Trump’s call to invest the equivalent of at least 5% of its gross domestic product in their militaries.
“I have no concern that our European allies and Canada can do more and want to do more,” Whitaker said. “I fully expect they will do what’s necessary to continue to make NATO the strongest alliance ever in the history of the planet.”
Many Democrats plan to wear blue and yellow ties during Trump’s speech
The move is meant as a show of support for Ukraine.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat., urged colleagues during a closed-door meeting to join the effort. The move comes one day after President Donald Trump directed a pause in Ukraine assistance and after last week’s disastrous White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, who was wearing a blue and yellow tie, accused Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance of “bullying a statesman last week on behalf of a thug.”
“I think we need to make a full show of support for Ukraine tonight,” Doggett said.
Warner blasts Trump over Ukraine aid as intel sharing remains uncertain
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend aid to Ukraine will imperil lives and worsen Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said Tuesday that military assistance for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders has always had bipartisan support. Warner said Trump’s decision will weaken Ukraine and undercut its position in any peace talks.
Warner has been a staunch supporter of intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Ukraine, a relationship that will be tested by Trump’s new posture. Intelligence officials didn’t respond Tuesday to questions about the status of the relationship.
“I call on President Trump to reverse this short-sighted decision, which weakens the United States’ credibility on the global stage,” Warner said.
Hong Kong company agrees to sell shares to a BlackRock consortium over Panama Canal ports
The move comes after President Donald Trump alleged Chinese interference with the operations of the critical shipping lane.
In a filing, CK Hutchison Holding said it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and all shares in Hutchison Port Group Holdings.
The two units hold 80% in the Hutchison Ports group that operates 43 ports in 23 countries.
The consortium, comprised of BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited, will acquire 90% interests in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal in Panama, according to the filing.
House speaker says he wants to frame Trump’s speech in ‘gilded gold’
Mike Johnson says he won’t be ripping up Trump’s speech, the way then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did from the dais during the president’s first term.
In fact, Johnson said, he’d like “to frame it in gilded gold.”
The Republican speaker said he’s excited about the speech. “There really is so much to celebrate,” he said.
Democrats face a choice over whether to stay or boycott Trump’s speech
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is telling colleagues it’s “important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence” for Trump’s speech.
“The House as an institution belongs to the American people,” Jeffries wrote in a letter to colleagues, “and as their representatives we will not be run off the block or bullied.”
Still, some Democrats are simply declining.
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, a state hit hard by the federal firings, said he has never missed a speech but that the challenges demand “more than sitting in a chamber” listening as if Trump was not “unleashing
chaos and cruelty on their lives.”
“These are not normal times,” Connolly said.
Union strategizes on countering Trump actions targeting workers
Thousands of federal workers attending the National Treasury Employees Union Legislative Conference in Washington focused their annual meeting on the impact of Department of Government Efficiency cuts to the federal workforce and attempts to shut down agencies.
NTEU President Doreen Greenwald told attendees “to keep the pressure on” members of Congress by contacting their offices repeatedly.
NTEU has filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration over mass layoffs of probationary workers and agency closures.
“The actions of this administration are causing chaos,” Greenwald said.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, told the audience, “DOGE is not about efficiency, its about making it efficient to destroy the government. And when you break the government, people die.”
Trump administration labels Houthis a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ again
The State Department has reinstated the designation for Yemen’s Iran-backed group.
It fulfills an order announced by Trump shortly after he took office in January.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday that the designation, which carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing “material support” for the group, had been restored.
Trump’s first administration had similarly designated the Houthis in its waning days, but that had been revoked by the Biden administration over concerns it would badly affect the delivery of aid to Yemen, which was then considered to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Trump administration threatens to cut Columbia University funding over campus antisemitism response
The Education Department and Health and Human Services are considering orders to stop work on $51 million in contracts with Columbia, the agencies said Monday. They’re also reviewing $5 billion in federal grants.
Trump said on social media that federal funding will be stopped for schools or colleges that allow “illegal protests,” and that agitators “will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”
A statement from Columbia said it’s working with the administration to fight antisemitism.
The New York City campus has been roiled by protests over the Israel-Hamas War. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia has failed to protect Jewish students and questioned whether it’s fit to do business with the government.
Two cases involving the first lady’s guests became flashpoints in the immigration debate
Allyson and Lauren Phillips of Woodstock, Georgia, are the mother and sister of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was killed while jogging. Federal authorities have said a Venezuelan man who was sentenced to life in prison for her killing had entered the U.S. illegally. President Trump recently signed a bill into law named after Riley.
Prosecutors in Texas are seeking the death penalty against two Venezuelan men who are accused of killing Alexis Nungaray’s 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, after they had entered the U.S. illegally.
Wall Street’s losing streak deepens as Trump’s tariffs kick in
Stocks are falling again on Wall Street as companies and investors react to President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on the U.S.’s biggest trading partners.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% Tuesday morning, the Nasdaq fell 0.6% and the Dow slid 423 points, or 1%.
The burgeoning trade war between the U.S., China, Canada and Mexico is helping to extend a recent slump for U.S. stocks that was prompted by signs of weakness in the economy. Shares of Target and Best Buy fell after the retailers warned of higher prices for consumers due to tariffs.
Markets in Europe fell sharply while stocks in Asia saw more modest declines.
▶ Read more about the tariffs’ effects on financial markets
Teacher held by Russia, family of man killed in assassination attempt among first lady’s speech guests
Also sitting with Melania Trump will be Stephanie Diller. She’s the widow of New York police officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed in the line of duty during a Queens traffic stop in March 2024. Donald Trump attended Diller’s wake.
Marc Fogel is the American history teacher who returned home last month after years of wrongful detention in Russia. His 95-year-old mother, Malphine, will join him.
The family of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed during the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, are also guests.
In response to US tariffs, Mexico will impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday she’ll announce the products Mexico will target Sunday in a public event in Mexico City’s central plaza, perhaps indicating Mexico still hopes to de-escalate the trade war set off by President Trump.
“There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” Sheinbaum said.
▶ Read more about Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs
Prices rise as trade disruption looms along US-Mexican border
President Trump has said “it’s a myth” that U.S. consumers will be paying for the tariffs through higher prices. But businesses dealing with cross-border trade with Mexico swiftly raised prices Tuesday.
One Arizona business that distributes 5 million boxes of Mexican produce a year says that if U.S. consumers won’t pay, the tomatoes and other perishable vegetables will be left in the fields or stuck in warehouses. Industry-wide, Jaime Chamberlain predicts shorter supplies, and that means price-hikes.
▶ Read more about trade disruption and price hikes
Vance: US-Ukraine rare earths deal better deterrent against Russia than international peacekeepers
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Vice President JD Vance said the pact that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals “is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
“The president knows that, look, if you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance added.
The interview was recorded hours before a White House official confirmed Monday evening that Trump directed a “pause” of U.S. assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia.
China defended its efforts to control the flow of fentanyl to the US
That came as new American tariffs took effect Tuesday on Chinese imports.
The Trump administration’s stated reason for the tariffs, which hit Canada and Mexico as well as China, is to address drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
A Chinese government report said it had exercised strict supervision over fentanyl-related medications and cracked down on the smuggling, manufacturing, and trafficking of fentanyl-related substances and related precursor chemicals.
“China has achieved notable successes in in-depth cooperation with countries concerned, including the United States,” the report said.
It said China is willing to cooperate “but firmly opposes illegal sanctions and unreasonable suppression on the grounds of the so-called fentanyl issue.”
Following Trump’s lead, his allies criticize Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and suggest he may need to resign
Trump’s senior aides and allies criticized Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Washington as he attended a European summit Sunday in London to rally international support for his military’s fight against the Russian invasion.
Following Trump’s lead, White House officials and Republicans in Congress used news show appearances to demand that Zelenskyy display more gratitude for U.S. support and an openness to potential war-ending concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some suggested Zelenskyy should consider resigning even as Ukrainians rally around him.
But they offered little clarity as to what Zelenskyy and Ukraine could do after Friday’s Oval Office meeting in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him before canceling the signature of an economic agreement between Washington and Kyiv.
▶ Read more about the criticism of Zelenskyy from Washington
Trump’s tariff tactics carry higher economic risks than during his first term
When Trump started the biggest trade war since the 1930s in his first term, his impulsive combination of threats and import taxes on U.S. trading partners created chaos, generated drama -- and drew criticism from mainstream economists who favor free trade.
But it didn’t do much damage to the U.S. economy. Or much good. Inflation stayed under control. The economy kept growing as it had before. And America’s massive trade deficits, the main target of Trump’s ire, proved resistant to his rhetoric and his tariffs: Already big, they got bigger.
The trade war sequel that Trump has introduced in his second term is likely to be a different matter altogether. Trump appears to have grander ambitions and is operating in a far more treacherous economic environment this time.
▶ Read more about the impacts of Trump’s tariffs
India’s steel industry contemplates potential fallout from Trump administration tariffs
Many industry workers and experts expect that the result of tariffs will be that cheap steel gets dumped in places like India. That’s because the announced tariff will make it too expensive for many companies in countries like China and South Korea to keep exporting to the U.S.
For B. Praveen of Sun Techpro Engineering, which makes products from steel metal sheets, it means his “wafer-thin” profit margins will probably grow as the steel he buys gets cheaper.
“For thousands of companies like mine, this can be a good thing,” he said. Businesses such as Praveen’s employ over 200 million Indians and are key drivers of India’s economy.
But cheaper steel in India isn’t good for everyone. In February Naveen Jindal, the president of the Indian Steel Association, which represents all India’s steelmakers, said that he was “deeply concerned,” especially since “India is one of the few major markets without any trade restrictions,” making it a target for potential steel dumping. And the increased competition could impact efforts by India to produce its own steel more cleanly. The current production of most Indian steel releases high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change. Reduction efforts could be cut in the interest of keeping profits up.
▶ Read more about how tariffs are impacting India’s steel industry
Here are some goods in the crosshairs of Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
The United States last year did nearly $2.2 trillion in the trade of goods — exports plus imports — with the countries the president is targeting: $840 billion with Mexico, $762 billion with Canada and $582 billion with China.
Energy imported from Canada, including oil, natural gas and electricity, will be taxed at a lower 10% rate — a concession to households in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest that depend on Canadian energy.
The following are just a few imported goods whose prices may be hit first:
▶ Read more about some of the goods that will be hit hardest by the tariffs
US tariffs on Canada and Mexico take effect as China takes aim at US farm exports
Starting just past midnight, imports from Canada and Mexico are now to be taxed at 25%, with Canadian energy products subject to 10% import duties.
The 10% tariff that Trump placed on Chinese imports in February was doubled to 20%, and Beijing retaliated Tuesday with tariffs of up to 15% on a wide array of U.S. farm exports. It also expanded the number of U.S. companies subject to export controls and other restrictions by about two dozen.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would slap tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods over the course of 21 days. Mexico didn’t immediately detail any retaliatory measures.
The U.S. president’s moves raised fears of higher inflation and the prospect of a devastating trade war even as he promised the American public that taxes on imports are the easiest path to national prosperity. He has shown a willingness to buck the warnings of mainstream economists and put his own public approval on the line, believing that tariffs can fix what ails the country.
▶ Read more about Trump’s tariffs
