Closing summary
We are wrapping up our live coverage of the Trump administration for the day, but will return on Friday. Please join us then. In the meantime, here are a few of the day’s developments:
The United States announced a trade agreement with the United Kingdom in an Oval Office ceremony, although the two sides seemed to disagree about whether a UK tax of digital services is on the table or not.
Donald Trump named another Fox host to his administration, appointing Jeanine Pirro interim US attorney for DC, after he was forced to admit that his first pick, Ed Martin, did not have the votes to be confirmed.
The acting head of Fema was fired, one day after he said that he thought the emergency response agency should not be eliminated.
Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said that he was certain that British consumers would love the taste of American chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef.
The state department said a solution to be able to deliver food aid to Gaza was “steps away” and an announcement was coming shortly, although it fell short of detailing what the plan would entail.
Trump congratulated Pope Leo XIV on his election to head the Catholic Church.
A test for UK ambassador Peter Mandelson: what to do with his face when Trump called Schumer 'a Palestinian'
During the Oval Office event to announce a new trade agreement between the US and the UK on Thursday morning, there was a visibly awkward moment for the British ambassador, Peter Mandelson.
Lord Mandelson, who had to apologize for having called Trump a “bully” in the past before taking up his diplomatic post, seemed generally eager to laugh at all of the president’s jokes as he stood behind him at the extended press event.
At one point, having stood next to the seated president for over 50 minutes, the diplomat began to chuckle as he heard Trump complain that Democrats would only oppose the deal because “they have Trump derangement syndrome”.
Things took a more uncomfortable turn seconds later, when Trump went into his insult comic mode and said, of the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, who is Jewish, “Senator Schumer’s become a Palestinian”.
After a brief grin, Lord Mandelson, whose father was Jewish, looked away as Trump added, to guffaws from his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, “I don’t know when they’re going to give him the ceremony, whatever the ceremony may be”.
Melania Trump celebrates the life of Barbara Bush, who hated Donald Trump
In a curious event at the White House on Thursday, Melania Trump unveiled a new stamp honoring one of her predecessors, Barbara Bush, who made no secret of her passionate hatred for Donald Trump.
“The unveiling of this commemorative stamp honors Barbara Bush’s contributions as first lady and her enduring impact on our nation” the current, if largely absentee first lady read, haltingly, at the ceremony. “May this tribute inspire us to lead with compassion, act with strength, and uphold the values that direct us toward a meaningful existence.”
In a diary entry written in 1990 that Bush gave to the journalist Susan Page for a biography published after her death, the then first lady wrote that Trump’s behavior, 25 years before he entered politics, had transformed the meaning of his name into a new word. “Trump now means Greed, selfishness and ugly,” Bush wrote.
In 2016, just before her son Jeb dropped out of the Republican presidential primary against Trump, the former first lady told CBS News: “I don’t know how women can vote for someone who said what he sad about Megyn Kelly. It was terrible, and we knew what he meant too.”
After Kelly had asked Trump to account for his past misogynistic and sexist comments during a primary debate hosted by Fox in that campaign, Trump was enraged, and later told CNN: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever.”
According to Page’s biography, until the day she died in 2018, Bush kept a red, white and blue digital clock on her bedside table that counted down to the end of Trump’s term.
Trump gives three jobs to Ed Martin, after withdrawing his nomination for US attorney
In a social media post, Donald Trump announced that Ed Martin, the Republican operative whose nomination as US attorney for Washington DC was withdrawn on Thursday, has been rewarded with not just one or two but three new jobs at the justice department.
Martin, whose brief tenure as interim US attorney will be remembered for his threatening letters to scientific journals he accused of bias in their publication decisions, will now be the director of a weaponization working group, an associate deputy attorney general, and the pardon attorney. Given the unprecedented rate at which Trump has doled out pardons to political supporters, including to the hundreds of January 6 rioters Martin raised money for and defended, that last assignment will no doubt keep him busy.
In his new roles, Trump promised: “Ed will make sure we finally investigate the Weaponization of our Government under the Biden Regime, and provide much needed Justice for its victims.”
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Trump names Fox host Jeanine Pirro as interim US attorney in DC
Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was naming yet another Fox host to his administration, picking Jeanine Pirro to serve as the interim US attorney for Washington DC, after it became clear that his first choice, Ed Martin, would not be confirmed by the Senate.
Pirro, a former district attorney of Westchester county, New York, is a diehard Trump supporter whose false claim that the 2020 election was rigged by Dominion Voting Systems was used against Fox in court.
Trump, who noted Pirro’s legal qualifications, also wrote that she is “currently Co-Host of The Five, one of the Highest Rated Shows on Television”.
Pirro’s appointment comes one day after Trump withdrew his nomination of another Fox personality, Dr Janette Nesheiwat, as surgeon general.
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The president spent some of his afternoon posting messages on his social media platform, including one assuring his readers that he “will stay committed to securing Peace between Russia and Ukraine, together with the Europeans, and a Lasting Peace it will be!”
No details of any progress were included in the message, and the president offered no concrete suggestions, but he did downplay the difficulty of bringing an end to a bloody conflict that has lasted more than a decade already. “It can all be done very quickly, and I will be available on a moment’s notice if my services are needed,” he wrote.
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Acting head of Fema fired one day after saying agency should not be eliminated
During a House oversight hearing on Wednesday, Cameron Hamilton, the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was asked by the representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, whether he agreed with plans floated by the president and his homeland secretary, Kristi Noem, to eliminate Fema.
Hamilton asked the appropriations committee’s chair, the Republican Tom Cole, if he had to answer the question.
“I’m not going to let you off that easy,” Cole replied.
“As the senior adviser to the president on disasters and emergency management,” Hamilton answered, measuring his words carefully, “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
Twenty-four hours later, Hamilton is no longer leading the agency and has been replaced as the government’s senior emergency management official.
Hamilton was replaced by David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who was until Thursday the homeland security department’s assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction. He has no apparent experience in managing responses to natural disasters and has just three weeks to prepare for the start of Atlantic hurricane season.
In a statement, DeLauro praised Hamilton and said:
I asked him a basic question about FEMA’s importance and the Trump Administration’s stated goal to eliminate this critical agency. Acting Administrator Hamilton answered with clarity and honesty – and now he has been fired.
President Trump fires anyone who is not blindly loyal to him. Acting Administrator Hamilton has proven his dedication to serving the American people. The Trump administration must explain why he has been removed from this position. Integrity and morality should not cost you your job, and if it does, it says more about your employer than it does you.
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US and UK are ‘still in negotiations’ over digital services tax, Trump’s trade adviser says
One point of apparent disagreement between American and British officials seems to be whether the UK will have to drop its digital services tax, imposed on US tech companies like Amazon, Google and Meta.
The tax, which is imposed by several European countries and set at 2% by the UK on the revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces, was described recently by the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent as an “unfair tax on one of America’s great industries”.
The 10 Downing Street statement on the new trade deal agreed on Thursday says: “The Digital Services Tax remains unchanged as part of today’s deal.” But Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters a short time ago: “We’re still in negotiations with that.”
“That’s a very big deal to President Trump,” Navarro added. “The digital tax has spread like a bad virus around the world, but it started in Europe, and it basically targets American companies.”
According to the UK prime minister’s office, instead of dropping that tax, “the two nations have agreed to work on a digital trade deal that will strip back paperwork for British firms trying to export to the US – opening the UK up to a huge market that will put rocket boosters on the UK economy”.
In the House of Commons on Wednesday, the UK’s trade minister, Douglas Alexander, was asked whether the digital services tax, and legal regulations to prevent “online harms”, are on the negotiating table.
The tax, and those measures on online harms, he said, “remain undisturbed and unchanged by this agreement”.
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Trump’s chief trade adviser says UK consumers will like US chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef
Peter Navarro, Trump’s chief trade adviser, just told reporters outside the White House that British consumers will like chicken and beef imported from the US despite the use of chlorine and hormones.
“Let’s see what the market decides,” Navarro said when asked about longstanding concerns in the UK about the safety of chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef produced in the US.
“Our position is and always has been”, he added, that sanitary standards are “simply a phony tool used to suppress what is very fine American agricultural product”.
“So if more of that comes into the market and the British people don’t want to buy it, that’s one set of facts,” Navarro said. “We don’t believe that once they taste American beef and chicken that they would prefer not to have it.”
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Trump and Merz agree on need to resolve trade disputes, Germany says
Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and Donald Trump agreed on the need to quickly resolve trade disputes in a phone call on Thursday evening, Reuters reports that a German government spokesperson said.
The two leaders also agreed on the need to closely cooperate with the aim of ending the war in Ukraine, the spokesperson said.
“President Trump congratulated the Chancellor on taking office” earlier this week, the spokesperson said. “Chancellor Merz assured the American President that, 80 years after the end of the second world war, the United States remains an indispensable friend and partner of Germany.”
On the day of his election earlier this week, Merz warned the US to “stay out” of his country’s politics after the far-right AfD received strong backing from allies of the US president, including Vice-President JD Vance and controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Merz condemned recent “absurd observations” from the US, without specifying particular statements, and said he “would like to encourage the American government … to largely stay out of” German domestic politics.
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The day so far
The state department said a solution to be able to deliver food aid to Gaza was “steps away” and an announcement was coming shortly, although it fell short of detailing what the plan would entail, per Reuters. Gaza is on the brink of catastrophe after two months of a total blockade by Israel.
Trump and British PM Keir Starmer announced some details of the framework for a future US-UK trade deal, most of which pertained to cars, steel and aluminum, and agriculture. The details have not been finalized, but what was announced today was that tariffs for UK cars imported into the US would be cut from 27.5% to 10% up to a maximum of 100,000 cars a year, while US tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminum would be dropped to zero. On agriculture, Starmer said there had been no compromise on food standards, while the deal would open exclusive access for UK beef farmers to the US. But it also includes £5bn worth of agricultural exports from the US to the UK, with ethanol and beef – of great concern to British farmers – the only products mentioned specifically. US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said the deal would “exponentially increase our beef exports” to the UK. While the White House fact sheet and later press release from the US commerce department alluded to “unprecedented access” to the UK market for other American agricultural products being on the table in the talks – which neither side talked about in their press conferences today - they appeared to actually be referring to areas where the US already exports to the UK, albeit in small amounts.
Trump congratulated Pope Leo XIV on his election to head the Catholic Church on Thursday, writing on Truth Social that it “is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope”. Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Robert Francis Prevost, who is originally from Chicago. A quick glance at Prevost’s X account gives some indication to his possible views on the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. Whether this might put him on a similar path to the late Pope Francis, who had a difficult relationship with the US president as a vocal critic of his most aggressive policies, remains to be seen.
Bill Gates announced plans to shutter the Gates Foundation in 2045 and also strongly criticized Elon Musk for slashing funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing the Tesla CEO of “killing the world’s poorest children” in new interviews.
Trump said he will nominate a new candidate to serve as Washington DC’s top federal prosecutor, after his first pick Ed Martin, who holds the job on an interim basis, failed to garner enough support to advance in the Senate. Republican senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who sits on the Senate judiciary committee, appeared to deal Martin’s nomination a fatal blow when he told reporters he could not support him because of Martin’s past comments which downplayed the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack.
The Trump administration asked the supreme court to intervene in its bid to revoke the temporary legal status granted by Joe Biden to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the US.
An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years was released after 17 days in custody.
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Zelenskyy is speaking to Trump, Ukrainian leader's press secretary says
Reuters reports that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking to Donald Trump on Thursday evening (Ukrainian time), according to Zelenskyy’s spokesperson Serhiy Nikiforov.
We’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
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'Steps away' from solution to get food and aid to Gaza, says state department
The state department said a solution to be able to deliver food aid to Gaza was “steps away” and an announcement was coming shortly, although it fell short of detailing what the plan would entail, Reuters reports.
Gaza is on the brink of catastrophe after two months of a total blockade by Israel, aid workers say, with many families down to one meal a day. Medical officials report rising cases of acute malnutrition, and community kitchens that served 1m meals a day are shutting down for lack of basic essentials. Aid agencies say they have distributed all remaining stocks of food. Dozens of bakeries that supplied vital free bread closed last month.
I’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
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My colleague Peter Walker has this very helpful explainer from a UK perspective of the key points of the US-UK trade deal that was announced to be under discussion today.
Tariffs for UK cars imported into the US will be cut from 27.5% to 10%, up to a maximum of 100,000 cars a year, close to total exports last year (after that the tariff will be 25%). This was, Starmer said, a “huge and important reduction” – even if it is capped, and still a tariff.
US tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminium have been reduced to zero under the deal. This is relatively little in overall trade terms, comprising only about £700m a year.
Agriculture is the most potentially tricky area of the deal, not least due to concerns among UK voters – and farmers – about chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef. The result was hailed by Downing Street as “a win for both nations”. As ever, the devil could be in the detail. Government officials said there had been no compromise on food standards, while the deal would open exclusive access for UK beef farmers to the US. But, it also includes £5bn worth of agricultural exports from the US to the UK, with the US agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, saying the deal would “exponentially increase our beef exports” to the UK.
Read Peter’s full piece here:
‘Everything dope, including the pope’: US celebrates Leo XIV as first American pontiff
Americans are celebrating after US cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who will be known as Pope Leo XIV, was announced as the next pope.
“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after the pope, who was born in Chicago, appeared on the Vatican balcony in Rome, Italy on Thursday.
Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson quipped on X about Prevost’s appointment:
Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago! Congratulations to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you back home soon.
The US Embassy to the Holy See also lauded the new pope on X:
With joy we extend our heartfelt congratulations to the first Pope from the United States of America, His Holiness Robert Francis Prevost, as Pope Leo XIV, elected as the 267th Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church.
As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council astutely notes on X, the new pope didn’t post on his X account at all in 2024, but in 2025 he has posted twice and reposted three times.
Of his own posts, Robert Prevost – now Pope Leo XIV – posted an article criticizing vice-president JD Vance’s take on Jesus, and posted another article critiquing Vance’s statements on the administration’s deportation policies. Two of his reposts were to do with the health of the late Pope Francis, and his most recent repost was criticism of Donald Trump and El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele’s laughter at Kilmar Ábrego García (who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration and whose reeturn to the US the supreme court has ordered the administration to facilitate).
Earlier, Trump said he looked forward to meeting with the new pope, who he had “realised” was the first American to hold the position. How Pope Leo’s personal views will influence their relationship going forward will be interesting to see. Indeed, Trump had a difficult relationship with the late Pope Francis, a vocal critic of many of his policies – particularly his crackdown on immigration which, as recently as February this year, Francis called a “major crisis”.
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Trump to pick new top DC prosecutor after controversial Ed Martin fails to secure Senate support over January 6 comments
Donald Trump said he will nominate a new candidate to serve as Washington DC’s top federal prosecutor, after his first pick Ed Martin, who holds the job on an interim basis, failed to garner enough support to advance in the Senate.
“I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works sometimes,” Trump said in the Oval Office earlier. “We have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great.” A spokesperson for Martin’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
A source close to the Senate judiciary committee earlier this week said the committee would not move forward with a vote before Martin’s interim term expires on 20 May.
Republican senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who sits on the committee, appeared to deal Martin’s nomination a fatal blow when he told reporters he could not support him because of Martin’s past comments which downplayed the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack.
Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, said he was “relieved” that the nomination was withdrawn and that “Martin’s record made it clear that he does not have the temperament or judgment” for the top US law enforcement job for the nation’s capital.
Per Politico: “Martin has spent the last few years advocating for January 6 defendants and helping organize their legal defense. He has embraced conspiracy theories about the attack and the results of the 2020 election and he has spoken favorably about some of the most egregious perpetrators of the riot.
“He also has also drawn scrutiny for his evasive answers to the judiciary committee about his relationship with January 6 defendant Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who had been accused of openly anti-Semitic behavior, and omission of dozens of appearances on Russian state media in recent years.”
It was unclear what is next for Martin. Trump said he would consider giving him another role in the administration, potentially in the department of justice.
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Trump congratulates Robert Francis Prevost for being elected Pope Leo XIV - the first American to become pontiff
Donald Trump congratulated Pope Leo on his election to head the Catholic Church on Thursday, writing on Truth Social that it “is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope”.
US cardinal Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, is originally from Chicago. Trump went on:
What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!
For more from the Vatican, my colleague Jakub Krupa has been live-blogging the moment:
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UK farmers' union says it will be looking 'very closely' at standards used to produce US beef
Tom Bradshaw, president of the UK’s National Farmers’ Union, told the Guardian he is concerned the beef imported from the US will be produced to a lower standard than the UK product. He said:
80% of our beef diet comes from grass so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what the standards for the imported beef is. We are unclear on that as the details are still being worked on.
Many beef cattle are fed with soy, which can be bad for the environment as it comes from sensitive areas including the Amazon rainforest.
Bradshaw said the “main focus” in their recent lobbying was on hormone-treated beef, but said “the large US beef lots were also a big concern for our members – we will be watching that very closely.”
The US has vast factory farms for its beef, which outcompete those in the UK, farmers fear. Bradshaw added:
What we need to look at is how the US beef is produced, what are the health and welfare standards and what is the diet. [British] beef is one of the most sustainable in the world.
However, he said he was pleased the UK secured reciprocal access to the beef market, adding:
We’ve had a very clear ask that we wanted reciprocal access back, and the red lines on animal health and welfare standards have thankfully been maintained. We cannot see agriculture used as a pawn to shoulder the burden of tariffs.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said she hopes to expand today’s agreement to include “all meats” and that she will be visiting the UK next week to make this point, adding: “There is no industry that has been treated more unfairly than our agriculture industry.”
Bradshaw replied “good luck with that,” adding:
The [UK] government is trying to negotiate with the EU [which also has high food standards] at the same time so that sounds unfeasible.
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US agriculture secretary says she hopes US-UK trade deal can be expanded to cover 'all meats'
The US-UK trade deal includes £5bn worth of agricultural exports. The farming sector in the UK has been very concerned about farmers being undercut with cheap products from the US, which has lower environmental standards for its food than the UK. They say the large beef feedlots in the US outcompete the smaller farms in the UK.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters:
This [trade deal] is going to exponentially increase our beef exports. American beef is the crown jewel of American agriculture for the world.
UK ministers have been clear that chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef will not be included in any deal, but Rollins said she hopes to expand today’s agreement to include “all meats” and that she will be visiting the UK next week to make this point, adding:
There is no industry that has been treated more unfairly than our agriculture industry.
Donald Trump, however, mentioned that US agriculture could end up being produced to higher health and environmental standards under the leadership of his health chief Robert F Kennedy Jr, adding:
Bobby Kennedy is probably heading towards your system.
The UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs sources said imports of hormone-treated beef or chlorinated chicken will remain illegal, and that the deal will open up exclusive access for UK beef farmers to the US market. They said only a few countries such as Australia have this access.
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Trump asks supreme court to allow revocation of migrants' legal 'parole' status
Away from the trade announcements, Reuters reports that Donald Trump’s administration asked the supreme court to intervene in its bid to revoke the temporary legal status granted by Joe Biden to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the US.
The justice department requested that the justices put on hold Boston-based US district judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to terminate the immigration “parole” granted to the migrants under Biden.
The dispute involves immigration “parole” - a form of temporary permission under American law to be in the country for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit”.
In a bid to reduce illegal crossings at the US border with Mexico, Biden in 2022 allowed Venezuelans who entered the US by air to request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a US financial sponsor. He later expanded that process to Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans.
About 530,000 people were paroled through the policy, allowing them to live and work in the US, before Trump took office in January.
Trump called for the end of these programs in an executive order signed on 20 January, his first day back in office. The department of domeland security moved to terminate the programs in March, including cutting short the two-year parole grants for about 400,000 people.
The administration said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place the migrants in a fast-track deportation process known as “expedited removal”.
The plaintiffs, a group of individuals granted parole and sponsors, sued administration officials claiming the government violated federal law governing the actions of agencies.
Talwani in April found that the law governing such parole did not allow for the program’s blanket termination, instead requiring a case-by-case review. The Boston-based 1st US circuit court of appeals declined to put that decision on hold.
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Further to that, a US department of commerce press release includes further agricultural products that are part of the “unprecedented access” to the UK market as part of the future deal. It reads:
The deal removes longstanding UK market barriers creating a $5 billion opportunity of new exports for US farmers, ranchers, and producers. These exports include ethanol, beef, fruits, vegetables, animal feed, tobacco, shellfish, chemicals, textiles, and more. The US-UK trade deal will usher in a golden age of new opportunity for US exporters, establishing a long-sought level playing field for American producers.
That’s in line with what Trump posted on Truth Social earlier today. But it’s interesting to note that those other products weren’t included in the announcements from the White House or from the UK side.
We also have to remember that the details are not finalized on the future trade deal, so it’s unclear if the above is merely what’s been up for discussion as opposed to what’s been broadly agreed to.
More to the point - the UK already imports a small amount of fruit, vegetables, shellfish, animal feed, cereals, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, dairy, eggs, live animals, and meat from the US. According to the latest ONS figures that was only worth £1.1bn in 2023, with meat by far the smallest category, worth a mere £5.7m.
So it’s unclear just how “new” these markets are for US goods as the Trump administration is trying to frame it - it’s probably more accurate to say that those above categories are where the Trump administration thinks it could build on and grow its exports in existing areas. Sky News has a helpful breakdown.
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In terms of how the two nations are framing the outlines of the future deal so far, there seem to be some key differences, for instance with regard to agriculture.
The White House fact sheet and Trump makes much of the access to be gained by the US agricultural sector to the UK market as part of an agreement. According to the fact sheet, the future deal includes access for “American beef, ethanol, and virtually all of the products produced by our great farmers”.
Again suggesting that an agreement would include ethanol and beef among other things, it goes on:
This trade deal will significantly expand US market access in the UK, creating a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for US farmers, ranchers, and producers.
This includes more than $700 million in ethanol exports and $250 million in other agricultural products, like beef.
By contrast, however, the UK Department for Business news release only mentions ethanol and beef and says the arrangement would be “reciprocal” (the White House details only American access to the UK market and doesn’t mention that it will work both ways).
The British department’s release reads:
In a win for both nations, we have agreed new reciprocal market access on beef – with UK farmers now benefiting from a quota for 13,000 metric tonnes. There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports.
We will also remove the tariff on ethanol – which is used to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions from road transport.
The US has long sought greater access to the British agricultural market, but hasn’t secured it amid concerns that US food products are produced to lower environmental and animal welfare standards than in the UK. You can read more about those concerns here.
Indeed when he spoke earlier to reporters, British PM Keir Starmer said with regard to agriculture:
We said we had red lines on standards, particularly in agriculture. We’ve kept to those standards.
He also said the deal would “grant unprecedented market access for British farmers without compromising our high standards”.
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Here’s the White House’s fact sheet about the framework of the future US-UK trade deal (remember, the details are not yet finalized).
And here’s the UK Department for Business’s news release about it.
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Starmer says he trusts Trump to stick to deal he has agreed
Q: How do you know President Trump won’t just post something on Truth Social ripping this all up?
Starmer says there is a written text. He says he and Trump trust each other.
We respect each other, the president and I, and we trust each other, and have trusted each other through this process, each of us mandating our negotiating teams to get the best deal for our respective countries.
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Starmer ducks question about whether, despite deal, UK still worse off due to Trump’s tariffs
Q: [From the BBC] Is the UK better off under this deal than it was six months ago, before President Trump introduced his tariffs?
Starmer rejects the premise of the question.
The question you should be asking is, is it better than where we were yesterday?
And I think if you should come out when you finished asking me questions and talk to the workforce here, because what this does is to reduce to zero the tariffs on steel and aluminium. Look how important that is.
Reduces massively from 27.5% to 10% of tariffs on the cars that we export – so important to JLR, actually to the sector generally. But JLR in particular, who sell so many cars into the American market.
And of course, it also includes pharmaceuticals, some really important measures. Obviously, we don’t have tariffs yet [in pharmaceuticals], but we’ve got within the deal significantly preferential treatment whatever happens in the future. So this is hugely important for our pharmaceutical sector as well.
In addition to that, we said we had red lines on standards, particularly in agriculture. We’ve kept to those standards.
Starmer says deal means tariffs will be cut from 27.5% to 10% on 100,000 car exports to US every year
Following Trump’s press conference, British PM Keir Starmer also spoke about the deal and took questions from reporters. I’ll now post some of the key lines from that from my colleague Andrew Sparrow.
Starmer said:
This is a deal that will protect British businesses and save thousands of jobs In Britain, really important, skilled, well paid jobs. It will remove tariffs on British steel and aluminium, reducing them to zero. It will provide vital assurances for our life sciences sector, so important to our economy, and grant unprecedented market access for British farmers without compromising our high standards.
And he says the deal means US tariffs on cars from the UK will be cut from 27.5% to 10% for 100,000 vehicles every year.
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Donald Trump has once again criticized Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, for not lowering interest rates.
Speaking to reporters, he said:
“If he would lower interest rates like China did, like I think UK did, like numerous other countries have done, it’s like jet fuel. It would be great, but he doesn’t want to do it. I think he doesn’t want to do it. Probably he’s not, he’s not in love with me. I think that’s right. It’s sort of a crazy reason, but that’s the way life is. Anybody in his position would be learned. It would be like jet fuel.”
Trump went on to claim that grocery and oil prices are down, saying that even without lowered interest rates, “We’re doing well.” He also claimed that “Eggs are down.”
Yet according to federal government data, since Trump’s inauguration, price hikes for food have increased and gas prices have largely stayed the same. Moreover, egg prices have increased, rising by almost 6% in March despite inflation dropping from 2.8% to 2.4% from February.
In a sign of how quickly UK and US officials raced to announce an agreement, Donald Trump said on Thursday “final details” were still being written up.
For months, as economists warned his controversial trade strategy risked triggering a recession, Trump and his closest officials insisted it would set the stage for the White House to hammer out dozens of trade deals.
But earlier this week, the US president pushed back against “everyone” asking when such agreements would be struck. “We don’t have to sign deals,” he said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “They have to sign deals with us. They want our market. We don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market.”
US deals with other leading economies including India and Japan, while repeatedly mooted by administration officials, have yet to come to fruition. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, claimed this week that talks were under way with 17 trading partners.
By Thursday morning in the Oval Office, Trump took a different tack. US officials had “many meetings planned”, the president said, noting that Bessent would be meeting Chinese counterparts in Switzerland on Saturday. “Every country wants to be making deals.”
Trump says deal 'maxed out' as UK ambassador calls it 'starting point'
Donald Trump has called the deal between the UK and the US a “maxed-out deal.”
In response to the press question: “You said this was a comprehensive deal but [British ambassador] Peter Mandelson has said this is only a starting point” and whether he is overstating the reach and significance of the deal, Trump said:
“This is a maxed-out deal that we’re going to make bigger and we make it bigger through growth, but we have tremendous assets involved.”
He went on to add:
“There’ll be changes made, there’ll be adjustments made because we’re flexible, we’ll see things that we can do even better. But it’s very conclusive, and we, we think everyone’s going to be happy.”
Addressing reporters earlier, Mandelson said the deal “provides us with the platform, the springboard to what I think will be even more valuable for both our countries in the future.”
Mandelson also said this deal is “not the end” and is instead “just the beginning,” adding:
“There is more we can do in reducing tariffs and trade barriers so as to open up our markets to each other even more than we’re agreeing today.”
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer is now addressing the White House over the phone, saying:
“[This is a] really important deal. This is going to boost trade between and across our countries. It’s going to not only protect jobs, but create jobs, opening market access, and as you say, Donald, the timing couldn’t be more apt, because not only was it 80 years ago today, victory came for Europe after and at the end of the Second World War but of course, on that day, the UK and the US stood together as the closest of allies.”
Starmer went on to emphasize the relationship between the US and the UK, saying it is built on “notions of fairness and reciprocal arrangements.”
He went on to add:
“With this president, with this prime minister, we’ve managed to achieve what many people tried to achieve for many years. And I’m really pleased.”
Donald Trump is now speaking at the White House about a new trade deal between the US and the UK.
As part of the deal, there are plans that will bring the UK into the economic security alignment with the US.
“That’s the first of its kind. So we have a big economic security blanket and that’s very important and we feel very, very comfortable with that, because it’s been a great ally,” Trump said.
He went on to add:
“Both countries have agreed that the economic security is national security, and we’ll be working together as allies to ensure that we have a strong industrial base, appropriate export controls and protections for key technologies and industries like steel.”
Bill Gates announces end of Gates Foundation and decries Elon Musk for Doge cuts
Bill Gates announced plans on Thursday to shutter the Gates Foundation in 2045 and also strongly criticized Elon Musk for slashing funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing the Tesla CEO of “killing the world’s poorest children” in new interviews.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Gates condemned the sudden funding cuts to USAID by Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), saying the cuts have led to life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses, and could result in the resurgence of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio. Gates said:
The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.
Since Donald Trump took office in January, he and Musk began cutting funding and scaling back operations at USAID, the US government’s foremost international aid agency, once the world’s largest single provider of humanitarian aid. Doge staffers have worked to hollow out and dismantle the agency and have terminated more than 5,600 USAID workers.
Gates, 69, told the FT that Musk had cancelled grants to a hospital in Gaza province, Mozambique, which he said was working to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies, based on the mistaken belief that the US was supplying condoms to Hamas in Gaza in the Middle East. He said:
I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money.
The United States is leading global efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan, Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has told Reuters.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has called Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and stressed on the need for the two countries to work closely to de-escalate their conflict, Sharif’s office said in a statement today.
You can follow our live coverage of the Kashmir crisis here:
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Trump to announce more details on US-UK trade deal framework
Donald Trump will outline details of the new US-UK trade agreement alongside UK officials at 10am ET from the Oval Office, following a rollercoaster few weeks of trade uncertainty after his administration increased tariffs on several trading partners. I’ll bring you all the key lines from that.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer will also give an update later today, my colleague Andrew Sparrow will cover that over on UK politics live.
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From Trump whisperer to West Wing pariah: What went wrong for lobbyist Brian Ballard – Politico
In this morning’s Playbook, Politico has the story of how, after a March incident at Mar-A-Lago involving cryptocurrency and a Truth Social post, the White House turned on well-known political fixer Brian Ballard.
Ever since Trump’s election, Florida operative Ballard has enjoyed a golden aura as the go-to lobbyist for those seeking to influence Trump world. His firm has added 130 new clients since November (including Chevron, JPMorgan, Palantir, Netflix and Axel Springer, Politico’s owner and parent company), and pulled in $14m in Q1 of 2025 alone.
But there is a chasm between Ballard’s reputation and how he’s currently perceived in the West Wing.
In early March, after Trump greenlit a Truth Social post promoting a “Crypto Strategic Reserve,” the president came away furious and felt like he’d been used. The whole thing happened at the urging of a Ballard employee, and Trump hadn’t realized that Ripple Labs, a company behind one of the crypto tokens, was a Ballard client. Ballard has been persona non grata in the West Wing ever since.
Donald Trump blames air traffic control problems impacting US airports on former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg
“Air Traffic problems caused by the incompetent Biden Administration, as headed by, in this case, a total novice and political hack, Pete B. I WILL FIX IT!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post this morning, referring to Buttigieg.
Later today his transportation secretary Sean Duffy is set to unveil a multi-billion dollar plan to overhaul the system.
“We are on it. We are going to fix it. We are going to build a brand new system for all of you and your families and the American people,” Duffy said.
It comes after hundreds of flights at Newark Liberty international airport, one of the US’s busiest hubs, were cancelled and delayed, partly due to air traffic control staffing issues.
Last week a tower communications outage left air traffic controllers unable to communicate with or see incoming planes bound for Newark for about 90 seconds.
Ukraine ratifies strategic minerals deal with US
The Ukrainian parliament ratified a milestone minerals deal with the United States on Thursday, Reuters reports.
A total of 338 parliamentarians voted in favor of ratification, and no one voted against, said Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
The agreement grants the US preferential access to Ukrainian mineral resources and paves a path for possible new military aid for Kyiv, although it lacks clear security guarantees.
Here’s some background about the deal that Ukraine and the US signed last week from my colleague Andrew Roth.
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New York watchdog warns Trump cuts will usher in ‘open season’ for scammers
New York City’s financial watchdog is raising the alarm about the Trump administration’s cull of a key federal agency that oversees consumer financial protection laws, warning it will usher in an “open season” for fraudsters.
Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and a candidate for the city’s mayoral race, said the uprooting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will leave many Americans vulnerable to scams and predatory lending as the federal agency’s oversight and regulatory powers have been significantly diminished. Lander is calling on state and local governments to make up for the gap in oversight.
“Without the outreach and investigations, casemaking and prosecutions, I fear it will be open season, and these bad actors will just ramp things up again, knowing they’re not likely to get caught,” Lander said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.
Created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has recovered more than $17.5bn for consumers in compensation, debt cancellation and other relief measures, along with collecting $4bn in penalties through its enforcement of consumer protection laws.
Republicans have long been critical of the agency, accusing it of regulatory overreach. CFPB is now in the crosshairs of the so-called “department of government efficency” (Doge), which was until recently led by Elon Musk.
The White House has targeted the CFPB for severe cuts, putting nearly 1,500 of the agency’s 1,700 employees on notice for layoffs, which would amount to a 90% reduction of staff. Employees were reportedly told that CFPB would exist “in name only”.
Though the CFPB layoffs have been tied up in court – a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the firings and scheduled a hearing for mid-May – Lander said the agency had already been substantially weakened since Trump took office.
Irish woman detained by US immigration released after 17 days in custody
An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years has been released after 17 days in custody.
Cliona Ward, 54, who has lived legally in the US for decades, emerged on Wednesday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Tacoma, Washington state.
After visiting her sick father in Ireland she had been detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, causing an outcry in Ireland and the US and a campaign for her release.
Last week a California judge agreed to an application for the original convictions to be formally overturned in a manner that would be recognised at a federal level, paving the way for her release, according to Ward’s lawyers.
The incarceration left Ward traumatised but she was thankful for the support and she is now recuperating, her sister, Orla Holladay, wrote on a gofundme.com page. “Cliona is finally in her own bed and we are all ready for some quiet and reflection.”
Ward had requested food before returning home, Holladay wrote. “The first thing she did was jump on the bed and hug the pillows. She is in shock; filled with emotions, traumatized, full of gratitude, fear for the women she left behind.”
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Trump tariffs to hit small farms in Maga heartlands hardest, analysis predicts
The winners and losers of Trump’s first tariff war strongly suggest that bankruptcies and farm consolidation could surge during his second term, with major corporations best placed to benefit from his polices at the expense of independent farmers.
New analysis by the non-profit research advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), shared exclusively with the Guardian, shows that Trump’s first-term tariffs were particularly devastating for farmers in the Maga rural heartlands.
Farm bankruptcies surged by 24% from 2018 to 2019 – the highest number in almost a decade – as retaliatory tariffs cost US farmers a staggering $27bn.
Numbers of farms fell at the highest rate in two decades with the smallest operations (one to nine acres) hardest hit, declining by 14% between 2017 and 2022. Meanwhile, the number of farms earning $2.5m to $5m more than doubled.
Losses from the first-term trade war were mostly concentrated in the midwest due to the region’s focus on export commodities such as corn, soy and livestock that are heavily reliant on China. States with more diverse agricultural sectors such as California and Florida experienced lower rates of insolvency and export declines than in previous years, suggesting the trade war played a role, according to Trump’s Last Tariff Tantrum: A Warning.
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President Donald Trump is tapping Dr Casey Means, a physician turned wellness influencer with close ties to health and human services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, as his nominee for surgeon general after withdrawing his initial pick for the influential health post.
Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” – referring to the “Make America Healthy Again” slogan – and that she will work to eradicate chronic disease and improve the health and wellbeing of Americans, AP reported.
“Her academic achievements, together with her life’s work, are absolutely outstanding,” Trump said. “Dr Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.”
In doing so, Trump withdrew former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat from consideration for the job, marking at least the second health-related pick from Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration.
Nesheiwat had been scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday for her confirmation hearing.
Downing Street did not comment on Donald Trump’s claim that the UK had agreed a “full and comprehensive” trade deal with the US.
Asked whether this was the case, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “You’ve got his words and we’ve always been clear that we want to do a deal that’s in the British national interest, and support a substantial UK-US trading relationship.
“Those talks are continuing and we look forward to providing an update later today, when you will have the PM’s words to describe it.”
President Donald Trump has said he would raise the case of jailed Hong Kong activist and former media tycoon Jimmy Lai as “part of the negotiation” with China over trade and tariffs, a move that could further stoke tensions with Beijing.
“I think talking about Jimmy Lai is a very good idea,” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday. “We’ll put it down, and we’ll put it down as part of the negotiation.”
Top senior US officials are due to meet with China’s top economic official on Saturday in Switzerland, a fledgling step amid a trade war stemming from Trump’s often chaotic tariff policies that have hurt the global economy and roiled markets, Reuters reported.
Trump, however, said he wasn’t willing to cut Chinese tariffs to get Beijing to the negotiating table. Adding Jimmy Lai’s case into the mix – long a diplomatic friction point between the two sides – could bring further complications.
“Look, they [China] want to make a deal so badly. That, I can tell you. But we’ve been talking,” Trump said during the radio interview.
The trial of Lai – a longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist party – has shone a spotlight on a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong following China’s imposition of a national security law (NSL) in 2020.
Countries such as the US and Britain have called for Lai’s release and say his trial amounts to political persecution.
Trump calls Powell 'a fool' a day after Fed kept interest rates on hold
The president is up early and continuing to rant and rave on his Truth Social website this morning.
Now, Donald Trump has turned his ire back to Jerome Powell, the US central bank’s chair, calling him a “fool”.
He wrote:
‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell is a FOOL, who doesn’t have a clue. Other than that, I like him very much! Oil and Energy way down, almost all costs (groceries and ‘eggs’) down, virtually NO INFLATION, Tariff Money Pouring Into the U.S. – THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF ‘TOO LATE!’ ENJOY!
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The US-UK trade deal announcement comes at a time when the president could do with some positive news on the economy.
The Federal Reserve yesterday kept interest rates on hold and called out growing dangers in the US economy amid Donald Trump’s erratic roll out of an aggressive trade strategy.
Jerome Powell, the US central bank’s chair, cautioned that the president’s tariffs were likely to raise prices, weaken growth and increase unemployment if maintained.
Fed policymakers cautioned that “the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen” as they opted to maintain the benchmark interest rate for the third time in a row. “Uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased further,” they said in a statement.
With inflation expectations – how consumers think prices will move – rising, Powell, the Fed chair, said the “driving factor” appeared to be Trump’s tariffs.
Meanwhile, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Wednesday told Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle’ program that he was dismayed that the Federal Reserve has bad economic modeling on what might happen with tariffs.
Britain's Starmer to make statement on US trade talks after reports of deal
Downing Street said the British prime minister Keir Starmer would make a statement on trade talks with the US on Thursday.
The agreement is likely to focus on lowering US tariffs on specific products, such as British steel, aluminium and cars.
Trump said on Wednesday that he was preparing to announce “a major trade deal with representatives of a big and highly respected country”. In a post on Truth Social, he promised it would be the “first of many”.
A No 10 spokesperson said:
The prime minister will always act in Britain’s national interest – for workers, for business, for families.
The United States is an indispensable ally for both our economic and national security.
Talks on a deal between our countries have been continuing at pace and the prime minister will update later today.
It is unclear whether further talks will be needed or whether any reduction in tariffs will be temporary or permanent. The deal is not expected to be a comprehensive trade agreement.
Trump confirms 'full and comprehensive' trade deal between UK and US
Donald Trump has announced a trade deal between the UK and the US, saying the agreement is a “full and comprehensive one”.
He wrote on his social media website Truth Social:
The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.
Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement.
Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!
A team of senior British trade negotiators landed in Washington on Wednesday as talks over a deal between the two countries gathered pace.
Officials from the UK business and trade department were attempting to get an agreement signed before a planned UK-EU summit on 19 May.
UK officials have previously said they were targeting tariff relief on a narrow range of sectors in order to get a deal agreed before they begin formal negotiations with the EU over a separate European agreement.
Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, has ruled out reducing food production standards to enable more trade of US agricultural products, as officials prioritise signing a separate agreement with the EU, which is likely to align British standards with European ones.
The Trump administration had imposed bruising tariffs on a number of trading partners on 2 April – on what the president dubbed “Liberation Day” – before partially reversing course after a sharp downturn in the US equity and, later, the bond markets.
The UK was not hit with reciprocal tariffs because the US has a trade surplus, where it sells more to the UK than it buys. But the UK has been affected, like every other country, by the 10% global tariff and the 25% tariff on foreign steel, aluminium and automobiles.
Trump expected to announce framework of UK trade agreement
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
Donald Trump is expected to announce the framework of a trade agreement with the UK, according to two people familiar with the matter, after teasing a major announcement with a “big and highly respected, country.”
The specifics of any agreement were not immediately clear and there was no comment from the White House or the British embassy in Washington on whether an actual deal had been reached or if the framework would need further negotiation. Any agreement would mark the first such deal for the administration since it imposed sweeping tariffs against trade partners last month.
In a post on Truth Social previewing the announcement, Trump was vague and did not disclose the country or the terms.
“Big news conference tomorrow morning at 10:00am, the Oval Office, concerning a MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY. THE FIRST OF MANY!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
There was uncertainty about what exactly Trump would announce from the Oval Office, at the event scheduled for 10am ET (3pm BST), given the president does not have unilateral authority to enter into trade agreements and needs to secure approval from Congress.
The US has been in talks with the UK for weeks as both sides sought to reach a quick deal, discussing lowering British tariffs on US cars and farm products, as well as lowering British taxes on US technology companies, the person said.
Timothy Brightbill, an international trade attorney at Wiley Rein, told the New York Times that the announcement would probably be “just an agreement to start the negotiations, identifying a framework of issues to be discussed in the coming months.”
To read our full report on this story, see here:
In other news:
A federal judge blocked the government from deporting migrants to Libya, amid reports that the US military planned to fly detained immigrants there this week.
Donald Trump withdrew his nominee for surgeon general, Fox News contributor Dr Janette Nesheiwat, one day before her confirmation hearing. Later in the day, he nominated a wellness influencer close to RFK Jr to take her place.
Columbia University called in the NYPD to clear a Gaza solidarity sit-in at a campus library, resulting in about 75 arrests.
The Federal Reserve refused to lower interest rates as questions around the global economic outlook mount amid Trump’s erratic rollout of an aggressive trade strategy.
Trump said there would be more information in the next day on a potential new proposal for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza.
Stockholm’s city council rejected a “completely bizarre” demand from the US embassy in Sweden to abandon the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Voice of America, the US-funded broadcaster, will now run video provided by One America News, an openly partisan, virulently pro-Trump, far-right broadcaster.
