White House removes NTSB vice chair - report
The White House on Monday removed the vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, the latest in a series of dismissals by Donald Trump from independent US government agencies, sources told Reuters.
Alvin Brown, a Democrat who was the first-ever African American elected mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, was designated as vice chair last December by then president Joe Biden after he joined the five-member board in March 2024. Brown did not immediately return a Reuters email seeking comment. A White House official confirmed the departure.
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US trade deficit surges to record high in March
The US trade deficit widened to a record high in March as businesses boosted imports of goods ahead of tariffs, which dragged gross domestic product into negative terrain in the first quarter for the first time in three years, Reuters reports.
The trade gap jumped 14% to a record $140.5bn from a revised $123.2bn in February, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said on Tuesday.
Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, including raising duties on Chinese imports to a staggering 145%, fuelled a rush by businesses to bring in merchandise to avoid higher costs. While reciprocal tariffs with most trade partners were suspended for 90 days, duties on Chinese goods came into effect in early April, triggering a trade war with Beijing.
Imports vaulted 4.4% to an all-time high $419bn in March. Goods imports soared 5.4% to a record $346.8bn. Exports climbed 0.2% to $278.5bn, also a record high. Exports of goods increased 0.7% to $183.2bn.
The government reported last week that the trade deficit cut a record 4.83 percentage points from GDP last quarter, resulting in the economy contracting at a 0.3% annualized rate, the first decline since the first quarter of 2022.
Economists expect the flood of imports to ebb by May, which could help GDP to rebound in the second quarter. They, however, caution that the lift from subsiding imports could be offset by a drop in exports as other nations boycott American goods and travel. There has been a decrease in visitors to the US, especially from Canada, in protest over the punitive tariffs as well as an immigration crackdown that has seen travellers detained and deported.
Axios has a thought-provoking piece on what critics on both the left and right have dubbed “Maga Maosim” to characterize the emerging nationalist movement under the second Trump administration. “His second term style,” Axios writes, “reflects ideas the US has long fought against – now reframed in nationalist terms.” Axios writes:
President Trump’s grand economic vision relies on a simple tradeoff: that Americans will accept short-term personal sacrifice – higher prices, fewer options, slimmer profits – in service of long-term national strength.
Trump is breaking sharply from free-market orthodoxy in his second term, blending bursts of anti-capitalism with a top-down, nationalist agenda for American dominance.
Critics on the left and right warn of an emerging “MAGA Maoism” – a movement that demands ideological purity, glorifies economic sacrifice, and embraces state power as a means to reshape society.
Trump’s strongman instincts – and his deep skepticism of cultural elites and bureaucrats – have only intensified the provocative comparisons to China’s revolutionary leader.
[There are some obvious key differences, as noted in the piece. Trump’s worldview isn’t driven by Marxist theory but by a deep-seated belief that America has been ripped off for decades. He’s also constrained by the rule of law, unlike Mao Zedong’s violent communist regime. Plus, much of Trump’s agenda remains pro-capitalist: He champions private industry and his appeals to sacrifice are rooted in geopolitical competition, not class struggle.]
But, Axios writes, listen to recent rhetoric from Trump and his top advisers, and it’s clear why the analogy has gained traction. From Trump likening the US to a department store in reference to his “setting the price” with his tariff policy, to his now infamous suggestion that kids will have fewer dolls to play with owing to potential supply chain shortages, to his assertion that he’ll personally call CEOs whose business decisions he disagrees with.
“The Maga movement,” Axios notes, “sees industrial labor as the backbone of American identity, and is pursuing a vision steeped in nostalgia and nationalism.” Trump’s officials have talked about what is essentially the idea of industrial “jobs for life”, avoiding the “spiritual degradation of the working class”, and even the idea that fired federal workers could help supply manufacturing labor (drawing comparison’s to Mao’s “re-education” policy).
“The big picture,” Axios notes, “is that Trump’s embrace of centralized economic power is just one piece of a broader governing style that borrows heavily from strongman traditions.”
Ritualistic praise: Trump’s televised cabinet meetings always begin with his secretaries showering him in praise – casting the president as the only leader capable of restoring US greatness.
Loyalty tests: Trump and his aides have carried out mass purges of career officials deemed insufficiently loyal, across the federal government.
Civil society: Trump has sought retribution against the media, law firms, NGOs, and political opponents. Some Chinese see echoes of the Cultural Revolution, when nearly all of society’s institutions were destroyed.
War on academia: The Trump administration has cracked down on dozens of universities over alleged antisemitism and DEI programs, moving to weaken elite liberal institutions seen as hostile to Maga.
And finally – military spectacle: The Pentagon plans to host a massive military parade on Trump’s birthday in June.
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Next round of Iran-US nuclear talks likely to be in Oman this weekend – report
A fourth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States is likely to take place over the weekend in the capital of Oman, with Iranian state media pointing to 11 May as a probable date.
Cautioning that the timing was not yet finalised, an Iranian source close to the negotiating team told Reuters: “The talks will take place over two days in Muscat, either on Saturday and Sunday or Sunday and Monday.”
Initially scheduled for 3 May in Rome, the fourth round of negotiations was postponed with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons”.
Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff also said Washington was trying to hold the next round of talks this weekend, according to Axios, a day after Iran’s foreign ministry reiterated Tehran’s commitment to diplomacy with Washington.
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EU plans tariffs on €100bn of US goods if talks fail, Bloomberg News reports
The European Union plans to hit about €100bn ($113.26bn) worth of US goods with additional tariffs if trade talks fail to deliver a satisfactory result for the bloc, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The proposed retaliatory measures will be shared with member states as early as Wednesday and consultations will last for a month before the list is finalized, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
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A group of US senators wants Congress’ watchdog agency to investigate whether controls on humanitarian aid deliveries by Israel and other foreign governments violate US law, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The six senators – Chris Van Hollen, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch – wrote to Comptroller Gen Gene Dodaro asking him to launch an investigation by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office of the US government’s implementation of laws regarding the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
All of the senators are Democrats except Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats.
“In Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, Burma, Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Gaza, vital humanitarian assistance such as food, medical equipment, water purification systems, and other life-saving goods have been blocked or restricted, directly and indirectly, by state and non-state actors,” they said in a letter, dated Monday and seen by Reuters, referring to section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act and the Leahy Laws.
The Leahy Laws prohibit the supply of U.S. assistance to any foreign security force unit implicated in gross violations of human rights, including torture and extrajudicial killing. Section 620I bars assistance for countries that impede delivery of humanitarian aid.
Much recent concern has focused on Gaza. The United Nations and Palestinian representatives at the International Court of Justice have accused Israel of breaking international law by refusing to let aid into Gaza, after Israel began on 2 March to cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian territory.
Israel has defended its blockade against aid entering Gaza, alleging that Hamas steals supplies intended for the civilian population and distributes them to its own forces, an allegation that Hamas denies.
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, was due to meet with US president, Donald Trump, on Tuesday in a closely watched encounter at the White House that could hint at the future relationship between the two countries and their two leaders.
Over the weekend, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would use military force to annex Canada, a key trading partner and political ally. In recent months, the president has repeatedly threatened to use economic coercion to weaken Canada to the point that it accedes to Trump’s wish to make it the 51st state.
“I think we’re not ever going to get to that point, something could happen with Greenland … I don’t see it with Canada, I just don’t see it, I have to be honest with you,” he said.
Carney crafted much of his federal election campaign on Canada’s collective outrage over the US president’s threats to the nation’s sovereignty. During his victory speech last week, Carney used one of his campaign’s most frequently delivered lines, telling exuberant supporters Trump wanted to “break us, so that America can own us”.
“That will never, ever happen,” he added, to shouts from the crowd.
Carney also used his first post-election press conference to once again quash any idea Canada was interested in becoming the 51st US state, a proposal repeatedly floated by Trump.
Donald Trump appears to be softening his tone after widespread dismay in Hollywood and further afield at his bombshell announcement of 100% tariffs on films “produced in foreign lands”, saying he was “not looking to hurt the industry”.
In remarks reported by CNBC, Trump said he was planning to discuss the plan with film industry leaders. “I’m not looking to hurt the industry, I want to help the industry.”
He added: “So we’re going to meet with the industry. I want to make sure they’re happy with it because we’re all about jobs.”
Trump also took aim again at California state governor Gavin Newsom, saying the film industry “has been decimated by other countries taking them out, and also by incompetence, like in Los Angeles, the governor [Gavin Newsom] is a grossly incompetent man, he’s just allowed it to be taken away from”.
Trump added: “Hollywood doesn’t do very much of that business, they have the nice sign, and everything’s good, but they don’t do very much.”
Newsom responded with a statement saying: “Governor Newsom continues to champion California’s iconic film and television industry – recognising it as a cornerstone of the state’s economy, one that sustains hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs across every sector around the state.”
“His plan to more than double the state’s film and television tax credit reflects a commitment to keeping production here at home, supporting workers and maintaining California’s global leadership in entertainment. If the President announces a proposal with more details, we will review it.”
Donald Trump’s administration on Monday pushed forward in defending US rules easing access to the abortion drug mifepristone from a legal challenge that began during Democratic former president Joe Biden’s administration.
The US Department of Justice in a brief filed in Texas federal court urged a judge to dismiss the lawsuit by three Republican-led states on procedural grounds.
While the filing does not discuss the merits of the states’ case, it suggests the Trump administration is in no rush to drop the government’s defense of mifepristone, used in more than 60% of US abortions.
Missouri, Kansas and Idaho claim the US Food and Drug Administration acted improperly when it eased restrictions on mifepristone, including by allowing it to be prescribed by telemedicine and dispensed by mail.
The justice department and the office of Missouri’s attorney general, Andrew Bailey, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The city of New York and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked a US judge late on Monday to block the Trump administration from killing Manhattan’s congestion pricing program.
Lawyers for the city’s transport department and the MTA sought an order to block Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s effort to kill the program and his threat to withhold federal government approvals for other projects and funding.
New York launched its first-in-the-nation program in January, charging most passenger vehicles a toll of $9 during peak periods to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, in a bid to cut congestion and raise funds to improve mass transit.
President Donald Trump said Moscow and Kyiv want to settle the war in Ukraine and that Russian president Vladimir Putin was more inclined towards peace after the recent fall in the price of oil.
“I think Russia with the price of oil right now, oil has gone down, we are in a good position to settle, they want to settle. Ukraine wants to settle,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
The price of oil – which drives the Russian economy – has fallen about $15 a barrel since the start of the year. OPEC+ will accelerate oil output hikes, sources told Reuters.
“We’ve come a long way, and, it could be something will happen, but hopefully it will,” Trump said.
Mike Pence rebukes Trump over tariffs and ‘wavering’ support for Ukraine
Donald Trump’s tariffs policy will trigger a “price shock” and possible shortages, and lead to public pressure on him to change his approach, the former vice-president Mike Pence has said.
In one of his most wide-ranging critiques yet on the policies of the president he used to serve, Pence, speaking to CNN, derided the White House’s “wavering” support for Ukraine and declared – in direct contradiction of repeated assurances from Trump – that President Vladimir Putin of Russia “doesn’t want peace”.
Pence’s comments came in an interview after receiving the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage award in recognition of his refusal to bow to pressure from Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election when he presided over Congress’s certification of the results on 6 January 2021.
The vice-president’s determination to carry out his constitutional role and certify Joe Biden’s victory presaged an attack on the US Capitol by a violent mob, who chanted “hang Mike Pence”, as the vice-president was spirited to safety by security personnel.
Pence told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Trump’s decision to pardon about 1,600 convicted rioters after he returned to office in January “sent the wrong message”.
“I was deeply disappointed to see President Trump pardon people that engaged in violence against law enforcement officers that day,” he said.
FDA bargaining session cancelled over layoffs, union says
The Trump administration last week canceled the first bargaining session scheduled with the US Food and Drug Administration’s largest workers’ union since its ability to represent government staff was temporarily restored by a federal court, according one of the union’s bosses.
President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order that excluded agencies from collective bargaining obligations that he said “have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.”
The order applied to the FDA, as well as agencies under the Justice, State, Defense, Treasury and Veterans Affairs departments, Reuters reports.
Senior US district judge Paul Friedman on 25 April issued an injunction to block the executive order from being implemented, pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 160,000 federal employees including as many as 9,000 FDA staff.
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Trump blocks grant funding for Harvard until it meets president’s demands
The US Department of Education informed Harvard University on Monday that it was ending billions of dollars in research grants and other aid unless the school accedes to a list of demands from the Trump administration that would effectively cede control of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university to the government.
The news was delivered to Dr Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, in a deeply partisan letter from Linda McMahon, the education secretary, which she also posted on social media.
“This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek grants from the federal government, since none will be provided,” McMahon wrote.
The main reason for the crackdown on Harvard is the school’s rejection of a long list of demands from the Trump administration’s antisemitism taskforce, prompted by campus protests against Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. McMahon also accuses the university of “a systematic pattern of violating federal law”.
As Garber explained in a message to the Harvard community last month, the university decided to sue the federal government only after the Trump administration froze $2.2bn in funding, threatened to freeze an additional $1bn in grants, “initiated numerous investigations of Harvard’s operations, threatened the education of international students, and announced that it is considering a revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status”.
The government’s “sweeping and intrusive demands would impose unprecedented and improper control over the university”, Garber wrote.
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Trump to host Canada's Carney at the White House
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog as Donald Trump prepares to welcome his newly elected northern counterpart, Canada’s Mark Carney, to the White House.
At 11.30am ET the president is due to welcome Carney and the event will also include talks and a lunch. This is unlikely to be a straightforward meeting, Trump’s tariffs on Canada and even suggestions that it could become the “51st state” created anger over the border that helped propel Carney to power.
In his victory speech just a week ago, Carney claimed that Trump wanted to “break us, so that America can own us”, adding: “That will never, ever happen.”
The following day they did have what Trump described as an “extremely productive” call and later he said wanted a “very good relationship” with Canada. Of course, with Trump, things are never predictable, so let’s see how today plays out.
Amid the talks, likely to centre on the tariff issue, the pair seems unlikely to discuss another major subject we’ll be covering today – Trump’s move to block grant funding for Harvard until it meets his demands.
The Canadian economist and central banker is a Harvard graduate and served on the Board of Overseers, Harvard’s second-highest governing body, before resigning earlier this year to take up his role leading the Liberal party.
In other news:
Trump has said he is directing the administration to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on an island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years. California Democrats called the idea “absurd” and part of the US president’s strategy of political distraction. Other officials pointed to the closure of the prison complex in 1963, known for its brutal conditions, due to operational expense and the high number of (unsuccessful) escape attempts.
Trump announced his 100% tariff on films “coming into our country produced in foreign lands” one day after meeting with actor Jon Voight to discuss his proposals to bring film production back to the US – which only suggested that tariffs could be used “in certain limited circumstances”.
Trump’s tariffs policy will trigger a “price shock” and possible shortages, and lead to public pressure on him to change his approach, the former vice-president Mike Pence has said. In one of his most wide-ranging critiques yet on the policies of the president he used to serve, Pence, speaking to CNN, derided the White House’s “wavering” support for Ukraine and declared – in direct contradiction of repeated assurances from Trump – that president Vladimir Putin of Russia “doesn’t want peace”.
Trump said Moscow and Kyiv want to settle the war in Ukraine and that Putin was more inclined toward peace after the recent fall in the price of oil. “I think Russia with the price of oil right now, oil has gone down, we are in a good position to settle, they want to settle. Ukraine wants to settle,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
Mass protests have been called for 14 June, when Trump plans to throw himself a military parade birthday party.
US intelligence officials concluded last month that the government of Venezuela is “probably not directing” the activities of Tren de Aragua gang members inside the United States. That undermines Trump’s claim that the Alien Enemies Act empowers him to deport suspected gang members.
The US Department of Education informed Harvard University on Monday that it was ending billions of dollars in research grants and other aid unless the school concedes to a list of demands from the Trump administration that would effectively cede control of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university to the government.
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