Donald Trump has performed another reversal on tariffs, delaying duties on many goods from Canada and Mexico again. Trump said the reversal has “nothing to do” with turbulence in the stock market in recent days, as investors weighed his economic plans. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 1.8% on Thursday. “I’m not even looking at the market,” he claimed.
It was also a day where the focus fell on the power wielded by Elon Musk and the president’s plans for US consulates in Europe.
Trump shelves Canada-Mexico tariffs – for a time
Donald Trump pulled back from his trade war with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, temporarily delaying tariffs on many goods from the two countries once again. Two days after imposing sweeping tariffs on all imports from his country’s closest trading partners, the US president announced that duties on a wide range of products would be shelved until April.
Elon Musk says he isn’t to blame for mass firings of federal workers
Elon Musk is telling Republican lawmakers in private meetings that he is not to blame for the mass firings of federal workers that are causing uproar across the country, while Donald Trump reportedly told his cabinet secretaries on Thursday that they are ultimately in charge of hiring and firings at their agencies – not billionaire aide Musk.
The men appeared to be making parallel efforts to distance Musk from radical job slashing made over the last two months. This despite the tech entrepreneur boasting about cuts, recommending the US “delete entire agencies” and taking questions on the issue alongside the US president, then wielding a chainsaw at an event to symbolize his efforts – all amid legal challenges and skepticism from experts.
Trump said on Thursday he has instructed department secretaries to work with Doge but to “be very precise” about which workers will stay or go, using a “scalpel rather than a hatchet”.
US plans to close European consulates and cut state department workforce
The US state department is preparing to shut down a number of consulates that are mainly in western Europe in the coming months and looking to reduce its workforce globally, multiple US officials said on Thursday.
The state department is also looking into potentially merging a number of its expert bureaus at its headquarters in Washington that are working in areas such as human rights, refugees, global criminal justice, women’s issues and efforts to counter human trafficking, the officials said.
Reuters reported last month that US missions around the world had been asked to look into reducing US and locally employed staff by at least 10% as Donald Trump and his billionaire aide Elon Musk have unleashed an unprecedented cost-cutting effort across the US federal workforce.
‘Not a king’: Trump is told firing of labor chief is illegal
A federal court ruled that Trump’s abrupt firing of a former senior official at the top US labor watchdog was illegal, and ordered that she be reinstated. Gwynne Wilcox was the first member of the National Labor Relations Board to be removed by a US president since the board’s inception in 1935.
The framers of the US constitution “made clear that no one in our system of government was meant to be king – the president included – and not just in name only”, the judge Beryl A Howell, wrote in the ruling.
Musk and Texas governor celebrate after worker fired over pronouns
The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and, later, Elon Musk showed support on Wednesday for the firing of a state employee who refused to remove his pronouns from his work email signature. Frank Zamora, 31, was let go from his job as a program manager at the Texas real estate commission.
Abbott celebrated the move on X. Musk then replied to Abbott’s post with two fire emojis.
US attorney threatens top law school over DEI
A Trump-appointed US attorney has told Georgetown – one of the country’s top law schools – to immediately end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, warning that his justice department office will not hire students or other affiliates associated with a university that utilizes DEI.
In an extraordinary letter sent to the dean, the recently appointed interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, said he was investigating the academic institution after it had come to his “attention reliably” that they were teaching and promoting DEI.
DoJ investigating California universities over alleged antisemitism
The US Department of Justice is investigating the University of California system for possible antisemitic discrimination after demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza took place on campuses last year.
Democrats join in censure of Al Green
The House voted on Thursday to censure Al Green for disrupting Trump’s joint session address, with a handful of Democrats voting to condemn the Democratic Texas representative along with Republicans.
The House voted 224-198, with 10 Democrats voting in favor of the censure, which accuses Green of a “breach of proper conduct”.
Canadians protest against US toxic waste
The proposed expansion of a Quebec landfill that accepts hazardous waste from the United States has ignited a turf war between the Quebec provincial government and local leaders, who say they oppose putting US trash into a local peat bog. Local leaders are protesting against the move – saying the province is capitulating to a US company in the midst of a tariff war between Canada and the United States.
Small US agency stands up to Musk
Members of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) unit were barred from entering a small, independent federal agency promoting economic development in Africa on Wednesday after a tense standoff with federal staff they had been sent to fire.
Workers at the US African Development Foundation (USADF), which Donald Trump has ordered to be closed, refused to allow Doge operatives to enter after they arrived at its Washington headquarters.
What else happened today:
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In an escalation of his pressure campaign, Trump said the US will not fight for Nato allies who don’t spend enough on their own defense. “I think it’s common sense,” the president said. “They don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”
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The state department is hunting for evidence that foreign students who express support for Palestinians under Israeli occupation while studying in the US are “pro-Hamas”, and can have their visas revoked, based on an AI review of their social media accounts, Axios reports.
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Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he will “probably” extend TikTok’s deadline to find a US buyer or face a ban.
