After weeks of White House hype and public anxiety, President Donald Trump is set to announce a barrage of self-described “reciprocal” tariffs on friend and foe alike.
The new tariffs — coming on what Trump has called “Liberation Day” — is a bid to boost U.S. manufacturing and punish other countries for what he has said are years of unfair trade practices. But by most economists’ assessments, the risky move threatens to plunge the economy into a downturn and mangle decades-old alliances.
Here's the latest:
Outrage grows over Maryland man’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador prison
In the 22 days since Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to a notoriously violent prison in El Salvador, his young autistic son has sought comfort in the scent of his missing father’s clothes.
“Although he cannot speak, he shows me how much he missed Kilmar,” Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said in court documents. “He has been finding Kilmar’s work shirts and smelling them, to smell Kilmar’s familiar scent. He has been crying and acting out more than usual.”
Abrego Garcia, 29, was pulled over in an Ikea parking lot and arrested March 12, with his 5-year-old son in the car.
Trump’s administration acknowledged Monday that sending Abrego Garcia to his native El Salvador was an “administrative error.” An immigration judge in 2019 had granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia was likely to face persecution by local gangs.
▶ Read more about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation
RFK Jr. adviser’s defense of deep cuts to federal health department met with shouts and hissing
Special government employee Calley Means, an adviser to the health secretary, defended Kennedy’s reorganization of the nation’s health department Wednesday, a day after thousands of federal health employees were laid off.
Means said the department has a “record of utter failure,” while speaking at a forum that brought together health industry insiders, lobbyists and politicians.
His comments were sometimes met with hisses and shouts from the audience.
“Any business if you went into it with the metrics that HHS has overseen, with skyrocketing costs and worse and worse outcomes … you would of course fire a bunch of people,” Means said.
Conservative-backed candidate’s concession in Wisconsin stands out in this political era
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel quickly conceded Tuesday as the first news outlets began calling the race.
As angry yells broke out at his watch party, Schimel doubled down. “No,” he responded. “You’ve got to accept the results.”
By acknowledging his loss quickly, Schimel curtailed the kind of explanation-seeking and digital digging that erupted online after Trump, a Republican, lost the 2020 presidential election, with citizen journalists falsely accusing innocent election workers and voters of fraud.
Schimel also avoided the impulses to which many in his party have defaulted in recent elections across the country, as they’ve dragged their feet to avoid accepting defeat.
RFK Jr. remains quiet on 10,000 jobs lost at nation’s top health department
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered no new details Wednesday about his massive restructuring of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy’s silence is prompting a bipartisan request for the health secretary to explain the cuts before a Senate committee next week.
As many as 10,000 notices were sent to scientists, senior leaders, doctors, inspectors and others across the department in an effort to cut a quarter of its workforce. The agency has offered no specifics, with the information instead coming largely from employees who have been dismissed.
“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said on social media, in his only comments addressing the layoffs so far. “It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”
The move, the department has said, is expected to save $1.8 billion from the agency’s $1.7 trillion annual budget — about one-tenth of 1%.
▶Read more about the realignment at HHS
Supreme Court appears divided over a Planned Parenthood funding case
The Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over whether states should be able cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood — a case that comes amid a wider push from abortion opponents to defund the nation’s leading abortion provider.
Low-income patients who rely on Planned Parenthood for things such as contraception, cancer screenings and pregnancy testing could see their care upended if the court sides with South Carolina leaders who say no public money should go to the organization.
The legal question before the court — whether Medicaid patients can continue to sue over the right to choose their own qualified provider — could have wider effects.
▶ Read more about the Supreme Court hearing
Law firms fear Trump orders could affect security clearances
President Donald Trump says executive orders targeting law firms are being issued in the name of national security, with the White House asserting that the firms don’t deserve access to sensitive U.S. government information.
But the firms fear the orders are written so broadly as to potentially weaken national security by calling into question the status of security clearances of lawyers who, in addition to their legal practice, serve as military reservists and require their clearances to report to duty.
It’s an example of the sweeping and sometimes unintended consequences of White House efforts to reshape civil society, with those affected in some instances not necessarily being the ones who were top of mind when the Trump administration announced the actions.
A White House spokesman pointed to the provision of the order saying the clearances are to be suspended “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”
Amazon wants to buy TikTok
Amazon has put in a bid to buy TikTok — an 11th hour pitch that comes as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to take effect Saturday, a Trump administration official said Wednesday.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the Amazon bid was made in an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The New York Times first reported on the bid earlier Wednesday.
On Inauguration Day, Trump gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that was passed by Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court that said the ban was necessary for national security.
Under the law, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance is required to sell the platform to an approved buyer or take it offline in the U.S.
Trump has suggested he could further extend the pause on the ban, but he has also said he expects a deal to be struck by Saturday.
— By Aamer Madhani
DOGE days are over?
After a few months of shaking up Washington with DOGE, President Donald Trump has made it clear that he’s ready to move on.
Trump has been praising Elon Musk’s work but suggesting that he’ll be going back to running his companies. In addition, he told reporters that DOGE “will end.”
The White House has not set a timeline for Musk’s exit, and DOGE was never supposed to be a permanent part of the government. However, it appears to be winding down faster than originally anticipated.
Musk recently told Fox News that he hopes to accomplish his cost cutting goals in the near future.
‘We’re not cowering,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says
Jeffries suggested Democrats’ performance in Tuesday’s elections was the latest sign of the party’s strength in a series of 2025 elections.
He cited Democrats’ strength in special elections in Iowa and Pennsylvania earlier this year, before focusing on the liberal candidate’s victory in last night’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
“It wasn’t even close,” Jeffries said at a news conference. “They got wiped out in Wisconsin.”
“Despite the effort by some to project this notion that House Democrats, Senate Democrats, the Democratic Party is cowering — we’re not cowering,” Jeffries said. “We’re beating them over and over and over again.”
US imposes sanctions on a network of alleged Houthi financial facilitators
The sanctions include people, firms and ships from Russia, Turkey and other nations who are accused of working in coordination with sanctioned Houthi finance official Sa’id al-Jamal.
The Treasury Department says the network has procured tens of millions of dollars’ worth of commodities from Russia, including weapons and sensitive goods, as well as stolen Ukrainian grain, for shipment to Houthi-controlled Yemen. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also identified eight digital asset wallets used by the Houthis to transfer funds.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday’s action “underscores our commitment to degrading the Houthis’ ability to threaten the region through their destabilizing activities.”
The Treasury Department announcement includes the deletion of Karina Yurevna Rotenberg from the sanctions list. Rotenberg, also known as Karina Gapchuk Fox, is the wife of Russian oligarch Boris Rotenberg — a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: ‘This is not Liberation Day. It’s Recession Day’
Jeffries told reporters Wednesday that President Trump’s rollout of new tariffs would increase prices and ultimately drive the United States into a recession.
Trump is calling today “Liberation Day,” arguing the new tariffs would free the country from unfair trade practices.
“This is not Liberation Day,” Jeffries, a Democrat, said. “It’s Recession Day in the United States of America.”
“That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do: Crash the economy, which has been happening since January 20 of this year,” he continued.
Judge who ordered fired federal workers be reinstated now says ruling applies to 19 states and DC
U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday night that protects those workers while the lawsuit continues.
“Only states have sued here, and only to vindicate their interests as states,” Bredar wrote. “They are not proxies for the workers.”
The order requires the 18 agencies originally named in the lawsuit to follow the law in conducting any future reductions in force. Bredar has now added the Defense Department and the Office of Personnel Management to that number.
Judge Bredar previously found the firings amount to a large-scale reduction subject to specific rules, including giving advance notice to states affected by the layoffs.
▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s mass firings
Trump pressures Senate Republicans to oppose resolution that would nullify Canada tariffs
Senate Republicans are facing pressure Wednesday from Trump to oppose the Democratic resolution that would nullify the presidential emergency on fentanyl he’s using to implement tariffs on Canada.
Just hours before Trump was set to announce his plan for “reciprocal tariffs” on China, Mexico and Canada — his so-called “Liberation Day” — the Senate was expected to vote on a resolution that offers Republicans an off-ramp to the import taxes on Canada. It’s a significant test for Republican loyalty to Trump’s vision of remaking the U.S. economy by clamping down on free trade. Many economists are warning the plan could force an economic contraction and GOP senators are already watching with unease.
The votes of at least four Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky — were in doubt ahead of the vote.
▶ Read more about the Senate resolution on tariffs
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Randy Fine ‘repels people’ and underperformed in special election
Speaking at a news conference, DeSantis said the results Tuesday evening went exactly as he predicted for Republican Florida state Sen. Fine — that “he would win but underperform” in the District 6 special election.
DeSantis represented District 6 from 2013 to 2018, under some different boundaries before redistricting. Before the election, DeSantis said President Trump got “bad advice” to endorse Fine, when speaking in an interview to a radio host.
“Just the way he conducts himself, he’s somebody that repels people,” DeSantis said Wednesday morning.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum maintains optimistic tone in face of promised new tariffs
It comes as her government has sought “preferential treatment” by the Trump administration because of a free trade agreement between the two nations and Canada.
Sheinbaum said she would wait to take action Thursday when it was clear how Trump’s announcement would affect Mexico, and that her government was constantly in contact with his administration.
“It’s not a question of if you impose tariffs on me, I’m going to impose tariffs on you,” she said in a news briefing Wednesday. “Our interest is in strengthening the Mexican economy.”
While Trump has already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, economic forecasters have warned that broader 25% tariffs could thrust Mexico’s economy into a recession.
Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni reiterated call to avoid a commercial war between Europe and US
She stressed that it would harm both sides and would have “heavy” consequences for the Italian economy.
“I remain convinced that we must work to avoid in all possible ways a trade war that would not benefit anyone, neither the United States nor Europe,” Meloni said at a public event celebrating Italian food and agricultural products.
Meloni added, however, that her view “does not exclude, if necessary, having to also imagine adequate responses to defend our productions,” in reference to a possible European response to President Trump’s much-awaited announcement on new trade tariffs, expected later Wednesday.
Meloni recalled that Italian food and agricultural products are widely exported in Europe and globally, with the U.S. representing the second wider market, with exports up 17% in 2024.
No one is challenging Trump’s executive order that keeps TikTok running
After TikTok was banned in the U.S. earlier this year, Trump gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that was passed in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court that said the ban was necessary for national security.
The Republican president’s executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but this one barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for it to be sold by ByteDance, its China-based parent company.
Few of the 431 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate who voted for the law have complained.
Despite a bipartisan consensus about the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China, “it’s as if nothing ever happened,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.
▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on TikTok
Wall Street falls in final hours of trading before Trump’s tariff announcement
The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower in early trading Wednesday morning, but it’s had a pattern this week of opening with sharp losses only to finish the day higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 240 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% lower.
Tesla helped pulled the market lower after it said it delivered fewer electric vehicles in the first three months of the year than it did in last year’s first quarter. Its stock fell 4.7% to extend its loss for the year so far to nearly 37%. Tesla, one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks, has faced growing backlash due to anger about CEO Elon Musk’s leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending.
▶ Read more about the financial markets
GOP senators meeting with Trump at the White House
The president is hosting a morning meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee to discuss a framework for his big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.
The Senate is hoping to launch all-night voting later this week on the blueprint but deep differences between House and Senate Republicans over the details of the plan remain.
Contest to decide who can build casino in New York could result in $115 million jackpot for Trump
The Republican stands to win big if state officials award one of three available gaming licenses to Bally’s Corp., which wants to open a casino at a city-owned golf course that used to be run by Trump’s company.
In 2023, Bally’s paid Trump $60 million for the rights to operate the public 18-hole course on the Bronx shoreline, near where the East River meets the Long Island Sound.
The gaming company promptly took down the massive “Trump Links” sign that was, at one time, all but impossible to miss for drivers going the Whitestone Bridge, and renamed the course Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point.
But under a little-noticed side deal, Bally’s promised to pay Trump another $115 million if Bally’s were to get a license to open a casino on site.
▶ Read more about New York casinos and Trump
Mass layoffs at HHS bring new worries for the future of the Head Start program
Some of the preschool centers had to close or furlough staff earlier this year because of glitches with a funding website. Now scores of government employees who help administer Head Start have been put on leave.
Preschool operators say they’ve received no communication from the Office of Head Start and don’t know who to turn to if they have questions about grants.
Head Start is federally funded but run by schools and nonprofits. It serves more than half a million low-income children.
▶ Read more about the Head Start program
Tesla sales drop in first quarter as Elon Musk backlash and aging models hurt demand
Tesla sales declined in the first three months of the year, another sign that Musk’s once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.
The drop of 13% is likely due to combination of factors, including its aging lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk’s embrace of right wing politics. It also is a warning that the company’s first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.
Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 globally in the January to March quarter. The figure was down from sales of 387,000 in the same period a year ago. The decline came despite deep discounts, zero financing and other incentives.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected much higher deliveries of 408,000.
▶ Read more about Tesla’s sales
Danish prime minister heads to Greenland as Trump seeks control of the Arctic territory
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is traveling to Greenland on Wednesday for a three-day trip aimed at building trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials.
Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited a U.S. air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.
Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that’s becoming more accessible because of climate change. Trump has said the landmass is critical to U.S. security. It’s geographically part of North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark.
Frederiksen is due to meet the incoming Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, after an election last month that produced a new government. She’s also to meet with the future Naalakkersuisut, the Cabinet, in a visit due to last through Friday.
▶ Read more about the Danish prime minister’s trip to Greenland
Trump to hold a meeting on possible investors to buy TikTok with possible ban at stake
Trump will hold a meeting Wednesday with aides about possible investors who could buy a stake in TikTok, a deal that could potentially stop the social media site from being banned in the United States.
The details of the meeting were confirmed by a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
There has been uncertainty about the popular video app after a law took effect on Jan. 19 requiring its China-based parent, ByteDance, to divest its ownership because of national security concerns. After taking office, Trump gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve by signing an executive order that delayed until April 5 the enforcement of the law requiring a sale or effectively imposing a ban.
Among the possible investors are the software company Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone.
Likely to attend the Oval Office meeting with Trump on Wednesday are Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
▶ Read more about the potential sale of TikTok
US and Russian officials to discuss plans for ending the Russia-Ukraine war
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to meet at the White House with a top adviser to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss plans for a Ukraine ceasefire.
A U.S. official said says Witkoff, who’s traveled several times to Moscow for talks with Putin, plans to see Kirill Dmitriev. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting hasn’t been officially announced.
Dmitriev runs Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and has been a key interlocutor in discussions between the Trump administration and the Kremlin on numerous issues, including the Ukraine war and the release of American detainees in Russia.
The official said the Treasury Department had to temporarily suspend U.S. sanctions on Dmitriev so he could legally travel to the United States.
— Matthew Lee
With a nod to America’s civil rights legacy, Sen. Cory Booker makes a mark of his own
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker ended his record-setting speech the same way he began it, more than 25 hours earlier: by invoking the words of his mentor, the late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.
“He endured beatings savagely on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, at lunch counters, on freedom rides. He said he had to do something. He would not normalize a moment like this,” Booker said of Lewis’ work as a young activist during the Civil Rights movement. “He would not just go along with business as usual.”
A break from “business as usual” was what Booker had in mind as he performed a feat of political endurance, holding the Senate floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes while delivering a wide-ranging critique of Trump and his policies.
In doing so, Booker broke the record for longest Senate floor speech, a mark that had belonged for decades to Strom Thurmond, the avowed segregationist from South Carolina who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
▶ Read more about Booker’s record-breaking speech
Trump’s schedule for Wednesday
According to the White House, at 4 p.m., Trump will participate in the “Make America Wealthy Again” event in the Rose Garden. This is when he’s expected to announce his so-called reciprocal tariffs.
Trump administration halts dozens of research grants at Princeton University
The Trump administration has halted dozens of research grants at Princeton University, the latest Ivy League school to see its federal money threatened in a pressure campaign targeting the nation’s top universities.
Princeton was notified this week that several dozen federal grants are being suspended by agencies including the Department of Energy, NASA and the Defense Department, according to a campus message sent Tuesday by Christopher Eisgruber, the university’s president.
Eisgruber said the rationale was not fully clear but that Princeton will comply with the law. The school is among dozens facing federal investigations into antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests last year.
“We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism,” Eisgruber wrote. “Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University.”
▶ Read more about the pause in research grants at Princeton
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ is unlikely to free businesses from uncertainty surrounding trade policy
Trump says his tariff announcements slated for Wednesday will amount to a “Liberation Day” for the U.S. But American businesses and financial markets are unlikely to be freed from the uncertainty generated by his often stop-and-go trade policy.
Some big questions will be resolved when Trump announces what are expected to be reciprocal tariffs, and companies will have a greater sense of how many countries will be affected and how high the duties will be.
But more tariffs are in the pipeline and could target specific industries such as pharmaceuticals, copper and lumber. And the United States may reach deals with other countries that could alter the reciprocal tariffs. There will also be countless details that could take months to resolve to determine precisely which imports will be hit with taxes.
As a result, few analysts expect Wednesday’s announcement to bring the certainty that many businesses — and Wall Street investors — crave.
▶ Read more about the impact of Trump’s tariffs
Wisconsin and Florida elections provide early warning signs to Trump and Republicans
A trio of elections on Tuesday provided early warning signs to Republicans and Trump at the beginning of an ambitious term, as Democrats rallied against his efforts to slash the federal government and the outsize role being played by billionaire Elon Musk.
In the marquee race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, the conservative judge endorsed by Trump and backed by Musk and his groups to the tune of $21 million lost by a significant margin in a state Trump won in November. And while Florida Republicans held two of the most pro-Trump House districts in the country, both candidates also underperformed Trump’s November margins.
The elections — the first major contests since Trump’s return to power — were seen as an early measure of voter sentiment as Trump works with unprecedented speed to dramatically upend the federal government, clashing with the courts and seeking revenge as he tests the bounds of presidential power.
▶ Read more about the Florida and Wisconsin election results
Trump says today is ‘liberation day in America’
The president was foreshadowing his upcoming announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs on both friends and foes of the United States.
He calls it “liberation day” to free the U.S. from what he says are years of unfair trade practices.
Most economists say it’s a risky move that could plunge the U.S. economy into a downturn and upset decades of alliances.
Trump posted about “liberation day” early Wednesday on his social media platform.
He’s scheduled the announcement for 4 p.m. ET in the White House Rose Garden.
▶ Read more about Trump’s expected tariff announcement
The Associated Press
