More than 15 countries are in talks with the US over deals on tariffs, according to the White House. Earlier, JD Vance talked up the chances of a deal between the US and UK over trade – and Donald Trump set the stage for more tariffs. Listen to the Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 16 April 2025 00:56, UK
But we’ll be back tomorrow with more from the US.
Here are the key lines from today:
This evening, Donald Trump directed his health department to work with Congress on revamping a law that allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.
Drug companies have been pushing to delay the timeline under which medications become eligible for price negotiations by four years for small molecule drugs, which are primarily pills and account for most medicines.
That would align with the 13-year wait until more complex biotech drugs become eligible for Medicare price negotiations.
The wide-ranging executive order signed by Trump tonight aims to reduce healthcare costs.
It comes one day after the Trump administration instituted a national security report into the pharmaceutical industry.
Defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s leading adviser was escorted from the Pentagon after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the department of defence, a US official has told Reuters.
Dan Caldwell was placed on administrative leave for “an unauthorised disclosure,” the official said.
They also said the “investigation remains ongoing”.
On 21 March, a memo signed by Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, requested an investigation into “recent unauthorised disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications.”
This evening, Donald Trump presented the commander-in chief’s trophy to the Navy Midshipmen football team.
Trump introduced Midshipmen’s coach and co-captains to deliver brief remarks, received a football and a ring from the team and invited them to tour the Oval Office.
It was the latest victory celebration hosted by Trump in recent days.
A reporter from The Associated Press was allowed into this afternoon’s east room ceremony, CNN’s chief media analyst Brian Stelter reports.
Here is what he has said…
For context: In February, journalists with the Associated Press were blocked from reporting on several White House events.
The move came about following a dispute over the term “Gulf of America”.
But this month district judge Trevor McFadden said the administration’s restriction on AP journalists was “contrary to the First Amendment”, which guarantees freedom of speech.
Donald Trump is holding a commander-in-chief trophy presentation to the US navy at the White House.
The award is presented annually to the team that wins the college football series among army, navy and air force academies.
You can watch it live at the top of this page.
The White House is keeping its cards fairly close to its chest when it comes to a UK-US trade deal, our US correspondent David Blevins says.
But he notes that the intervention by vice president JD Vance has fuelled speculation that the UK is high on the list of countries the US could do a deal with in the coming days.
Clear, also, is that Trump “loves the royal family” – and that puts the UK higher up on the list than some other European countries.
“It’s significant,” Blevins says, given that Vance has offended Ukraine and the UK in recent months, with his comments about the possibility of British troops acting to keep the peace in Ukraine.
Blevins adds: “He was still blunt this time but with a more optimistic outlook on the economic relationship between Britain and America.”
The first question at the White House news briefing earlier went to Matthew Foldi, editor-in-chief of the Washington Reporter – a conservative-backed news outlet that was only launched last year by former Republican political staffers.
Foldi began by thanking White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for having him there “on behalf of the millions of Americans who appreciate what you are doing with the new media scene here and making us more accessible”.
But what’s really going on here?
University ‘craziness’ – what Foldi asked
Foldi asked Leavitt about the Trump administration’s decision today to freeze more than $2.2bn (£1.67bn) in funding for Harvard University after it defied demands made by the Trump administration to curb protests on campus.
His question was: “Where does the administration see this going with Harvard and with other colleges and universities in America that are refusing to reform in the wake of the craziness we’ve see take over some of them?”
Responding to the question, Leavitt said the president’s position was “grounded in common sense” and based on the “basic principle that Jewish American students or students of any faith should not be illegally harassed and targeted on our nation’s college campuses”.
“We unfortunately saw that illegal discrimination take place on the campus of Harvard,” she said.
The press secretary also said the university “had not taken the administration demands seriously”.
Team Trump’s fondness for friendly media questions
Since coming to power, Donald Trump’s team have been inviting a number of Republican-friendly outlets into press briefings – and restricting others who scrutinise or challenge the administration.
With the president’s long-term criticism of what he claims is liberal bias in the media – think his favourite catchphrase, “fake news” – this comes as no surprise.
In March, Real America’s Voice host and right-wing reporter Brian Glenn, who is dating hard-right Republican congresswoman (and ultimate Trump backer) Marjorie Taylor Greene, mocked Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit during a visit to the White House.
And, earlier this month, journalists with the Associated Press were blocked from reporting on several White House events.
Taylor Greene also recently snapped at Sky News’ US correspondent Martha Kelner when she was asked about the US government group chat that The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was mistakenly added to.
Remind yourself of that feisty exchange below…
We’ve been reporting today on comments made by JD Vance, who said the US and the UK are “working very hard” on a trade deal.
He also said he believed they will reach a “great agreement”.
So what could a UK-US trade deal look like?
Speaking to Sky’s Mark Austin earlier, David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), says he is not entirely sure where this is all leading.
He says “traditionally a trade deal makes things easier” but “it’s not clear that this US administration wants to make trade easier”.
“I think the hope in the UK government is that a trade deal at the very least eases some of the extra tariffs that Donald Trump has put in place,” he says.
Still fear about price of a deal
“When it comes to deal, Trump feels he needs to win,” Henig says.
“He doesn’t necessarily believe in a win-win deal. They will be worried about the UK benefiting too much if all tariffs were removed.
“We are not in the classic trade agreement situation – we are in something rather looser.”
Henig notes, though, that Trump “does quite like the UK”.
“I don’t discount the vice president’s words, I’m just not entirely sure where it is all leading to,” he says.
When JD Vance puts a positive spin on something… that’s a win.
The vice president speaks his mind. He relishes in the shock factor. And so his encouraging words about a “trade deal” with the UK will have pleased British officials both here in Washington and in London.
Speaking to UnHerd, Vance said: “I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries.”
Behind the scenes, for many weeks – since well before Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” nearly two weeks ago – British trade negotiators led by the UK’s ambassador to the US, Lord Mandelson, have been negotiating as best they could with the US administration.
Their engagement with officials close to President Trump has facilitated ministerial meetings and White House-Downing Street phone calls.
I am told the UK is “now in the deal space”.
Another source told me the UK was “in the foothills” of a deal.
But it has not been straightforward, and there is some distance to go.
Unclear where Trump will ‘land’ on key policy decisions
Despite the absence of a trade deficit with the US, and notwithstanding the fondness the president has for the UK, Britain still got dealt a 10% tariff plus 25% on cars.
Prior to Trump’s “Liberation Day”, there had been some hope that the UK would achieve some sort of deal to avoid them. But it was clear quite quickly that Trump needed his “moment”.
Many foreign diplomats, including the British, negotiating on their countries’ behalf, were also struggling to achieve substantive negotiations because even those close to the president were not clear on his views, his choices and where he would “land” on issues.
This, incidentally, is an issue that can be applied to many aspects of this Trump administration.
“It’s always quite speculative,” one European diplomat said to me.
Watch below: Will Trump’s tariffs hit UK growth?
Vance suggests tariffs on UK could be undone
The challenge since “Liberation Day” has been to re-engage the White House with the offers already laid out over the past few months.
Many countries have been doing this. You can imagine the clamour for engagement.
A key question is whether the baseline tariff of 10% (applied to Britain – and now to everyone else following the 90-day pause) is negotiable.
Vance’s language seems to suggest it is.
Watch for a deal with Australia too, soon.
Why this probably won’t be a proper ‘trade deal’
But to call it a “trade deal” with the UK would be misleading.
It’s an “economic deal” to reduce the tariffs.
It is, however, a large step forward for the UK – which has been trying to engage America in closer trade alignment since Brexit.
The details of any deal will be fascinating – and it is where the controversy will be.
So we’re in the foothills. But there is a climb ahead still, and on an untrodden, unpredictable path.
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