President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was placing 25% tariffs on auto imports, a move that the White House claims would foster domestic manufacturing but could also put a financial squeeze on automakers that depend on global supply chains.
The tariffs could be complicated as even U.S. automakers source their components from around the world, meaning that they could face higher costs and lower sales. Shares in General Motors have fallen roughly 3% in Wednesday afternoon trading. Ford’s stock was up slightly. Shares in Stellantis, the owner of Jeep and Chrysler, have dropped nearly 4%.
Canadian prime minister says Trump’s auto tariffs are a ‘direct attack’ on his country Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he needs to see the details of Trump’s executive order before taking retaliatory measures. He called it unjustified and said he will leave the election campaign to go to Ottawa on Thursday to chair his special Cabinet committee on U.S. relations.Carney earlier announced a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.Autos are Canada’s second largest export, and Carney noted it employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries.
Carney says it is appropriate that he and Trump speak on the phone. The two have not spoken since Carney was sworn in March 14.? Read more about Carney’s response to Trump’s tariffsAP will return to court in suit against the Trump administrationThe Associated Press is returning to a Washington courtroom Thursday to ask a judge to restore its full access to presidential events. That’s weeks after the White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.In a previous hearing last month, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden refused the AP’s request for an injunction to stop the White House from barring reporters and photographers from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One.
He urged the Trump administration to reconsider its ban before Thursday’s hearing. It hasn’t.The AP has said it needs to take a stand against Trump’s team for punishing a news organization for using speech that it doesn’t like. The news outlet said it would still refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its style guidance to clients around the world, while also noting that Trump has renamed it the Gulf of America. The White House said it has the right to decide who gets to question the president.“For anyone who thinks the Associated Press’s lawsuit against President Trump’s White House is about the name of a body of water, think bigger,” Julie Pace, the AP’s executive editor, wrote in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s really about whether the government can control what you say.”The president has dismissed the AP as a group of “radical left lunatics” and said that “we’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”Trump signed an order to reshape how elections in the US are run. Is it constitutional?Election officials, state attorneys general and legal experts say Trump’s executive order seeking to reshape election processes throughout the U.S. will likely face legal challenges for violating the Constitution.Tuesday’s executive order demands sweeping changes for how Americans can register to vote and when they can cast their ballots. But the Constitution leaves it to states to determine the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run.
The president’s order also issues directives to the independent Election Assistance Commission, which election law experts say he doesn’t have the authority to do.A day after the order was issued, several voting rights groups and state attorneys generals already are hinting they plan to challenge it in court.? Read more about the constitutionality of Trump’s orderTurkish student at Tufts University is detained without explanation.
A Turkish national who is a doctoral student at Tufts University has been detained by federal agents without explanation, her lawyer said.Rumeysa Ozturk had just left her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, when she was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents.Surveillance video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their faces covered, taking the 30-year-old’s phone as she yelled and was handcuffed Tuesday.
A federal judge ordered Ozturk not be moved out of Massachusetts and gave the government until Friday to respond. Messages to DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not immediately returned.? Read more about the student’s detainmentSocial Security Administration backtracks on some ID requirementsThe Social Security Administration is partially backtracking on a plan that would require all new and existing beneficiaries to travel to an agency field office to verify their identity.The administration said people applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare or Supplemental Security Income who are not able to use the agency’s online portal can complete their claim entirely over the phone instead of in person. Other applicants will still be required to verify their identities at a field office.The changes will apply to all beneficiaries beginning April 14, instead of the previously announced date of March 31.
“We have listened to our customers, Congress, advocates, and others, and we are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country’s most vulnerable populations,” Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security, said in a statement.? Read more about the ID requirement changeDemocrats explore impacts of National Institutes of Health cutsA cancer survivor, an ALS patient and Alzheimer’s disease researchers told Senate Democrats on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s siege on the National Institutes of Health is destroying hope for cures.