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Vice President JD Vance will travel to the United Kingdom tomorrow and visit with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy, the White House announced today.
The White House did not share details about what the two would discuss, saying that they would talk about “a variety of topics pertaining to the US-UK relationship.”
The meeting will take place in Kent, England, the White House said.
Trump previously traveled to Scotland late last month.
Federal agents are expected to have a stronger presence in the nation’s capital in the coming days at the direction of the Trump administration, according to a White House official and a Washington, D.C., official.
That could include officers from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and the National Guard, the White House official said. It’s unclear whether the agents have been directed to engage in “activity” beyond typical duties or what their role would be beyond being present on federal property, the D.C. official said.
The issue is an “ongoing priority” for Trump, another White House official said. The president has in recent days decried crime in the district, although D.C. police data shows that violent crime is down 26% compared to last year.
“This has to be the best-run place in the country, not the worst-run place in the country. And it has so much potential,” Trump said in the Oval Office last evening.
Trump said White House lawyers are examining whether Congress should overturn a law known as the Home Rule Act that gives D.C. residents the power to elect their own mayor and city council members.
“Washington, D.C., is an amazing city, but it has sadly been plagued by petty and violent crime for far too long,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement. “President Trump is committed to making our Nation’s capital safer and even more beautiful for its residents, lawmakers, and visitors from all around the world.”
Trump has specifically cited the recent assault of a former Department of Government Efficiency employee who “got the hell knocked out of him” by two 15-year-olds from Maryland who were arrested by D.C. police over the weekend in an incident that the police characterized as an unarmed attempted carjacking.
The president wrote on Truth Social Tuesday that “the Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump added. “If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City.”
Trump has been toying with the idea for months and promised to do so on the campaign trail throughout 2024. Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at lowering crime in the district.
The Trump administration is scaling back the State Department’s annual human rights report and placing a new focus on restrictions on freedom of expression by U.S. allies, as well as adversaries.
The reports, which are widely anticipated and read around the world, have been composed by U.S. diplomats under congressional mandate for almost 50 years as a measure of countries’ adherence to internationally recognized human rights. The report for last year, which normally would have been released in the spring, has already been delayed by months.
Read the full story here.
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter flew to Washington on Tuesday to seek talks with the Trump administration over the steep 39% tariff imposed on Switzerland. But Keller-Sutter was only able to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, not with any of the primary tariff negotiators.
As a result, she returned to Switzerland overnight without any deal to lower the high duties, which are among the highest imposed on any developed nation.
Switzerland’s government said in a statement Thursday that it will “continue talks with the U.S.” and in the meantime it will not impose any retaliatory tariffs, as those could also hurt the Swiss economy.
On Tuesday, Trump said he had spoken to Keller-Sutter on the phone and “the woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen,” and he said he told her, “You’re not going to pay 1%” in tariffs.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said today that the FBI had approved his request for federal law enforcement to help locate Texas state Democratic lawmakers who left the state in an effort to block GOP redistricting efforts.
“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Cornyn said in a statement.
Cornyn thanked Trump and Patel for “supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas.”
“We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities,” he added.
Read the full story here.
Major stock indexes opened higher this morning despite Trump’s wide slate of tariffs snapping into effect after midnight last night.
The broad S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were both up about 0.6%, while the tech-focused Nasdaq increased 0.8%.
Many investors are waiting to see how big of a drag tariffs will ultimately prove on the economy — though signs are already beginning to mount that it could be substantial as the job market has slowed and price pressures increase.
Even so, the performance of major indexes is now more closely tied to earnings from large tech companies, who have seen their valuations soar thanks to bets on artificial intelligence. Trump also indicated yesterday that there would be broad exemptions to his plan to set new trade duties on semiconductors, meaning those same tech firms are likely to remain relatively unscathed from higher import taxes on chips.
“Tech stocks have continued to drive a buoyant mood in markets,” Deutsche Bank analyst Peter Siderov wrote in a note to clients today, adding the upbeat move has come “despite Trump outlining a plan for 100% tariffs on semiconductors, with the impact of these mitigated by carveouts.”
Trump demanded this morning that the CEO of tech firm Intel resign immediately, saying he is “highly conflicted.”
“There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Intel shares fell more than 2% before markets opened.
Trump’s attack on the Intel chief is his latest attempt to pressure the semiconductor industry, which has fueled the boom in artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, he said he would hit computer chips made outside the United States with a 100% tariff.
The demand also comes after Sen. Tom Cotton wrote to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary to “express concerns about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential impact on U.S. national security.”
Read the full story here.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would not compromise the interests of his country’s farmers even if it costs him, in his first comments since Trump raised tariffs on the key Asian security partner to 50%.
“I know that I might have to pay a big price for this,” Modi, who has often touted his close relationship with Trump, said today in New Delhi. “But I’m ready for the sake of India’s farmers, fishermen and livestock keepers. Today, India is ready.”
He did not directly mention the U.S. tariff on Indian goods, which Trump said yesterday he was doubling to 50%, among the highest on any U.S. trading partner. Trump has said India is supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine by buying Russian crude oil, which is trading under a price cap imposed by the U.S. and other governments to limit Moscow’s energy revenue.
India says the higher U.S. tariffs are “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” and that until recently the U.S. had encouraged India to purchase discounted Russian oil to keep global oil prices from soaring.
Anger over U.S. tariffs has been a unifying issue in India, where farmers are a powerful voting bloc. “Trump’s 50% tariff is economic blackmail — an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal,” Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, said in a post on X. “PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people.”
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he has instructed the Commerce Department to start working on a new census report and to exclude undocumented immigrants.
The president said he wants the report to use “the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.”
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” he added.
Trump undertook a similar effort during his first term, when he planned to leave undocumented immigrants out of a final census count. In 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the plan, and soon after, Biden reversed Trump’s directive after taking office.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on MSNBC that “what we’re seeing is the manufacturers overseas are absorbing some” tariff costs rather than passing them on to consumers.
Pressed on how long companies might absorb those tariffs, Bessent said “part of our plan is to have real income growth for working-class Americans.”
Bessent added that a “manufacturing renaissance” due to those tariffs will stop inflation.
Inflation has ticked up since Trump’s April 2 global tariff announcement, rising from 2.3% in April to 2.6% in June.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this morning that Trump’s tariffs should result in more U.S. manufacturing.
“We’re seeing these very large commitments, both from governments and from corporate” partners, he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Bessent highlighted Apple’s investment commitment, announced yesterday at the White House with CEO Tim Cook. But many aspects of the Apple commitment had been previously announced or were only moderate increases from what the company currently does in the U.S.
“So we’ve got trillions of manufacturing that’s going to come back, and we’re going to see that over the next couple of years,” Bessent added.
Trump, for his part, noted yesterday that he doesn’t know when the manufacturing announcements will fully materialize.
“I don’t know when it shows up, but there are a lot of factories and a lot of plants that are either under construction or soon we’ll be starting construction. … But I want to be around in about a year from now and two years from now, because we’re going to see an explosion, I think,” Trump said.
WASHINGTON — In June 2019, the Supreme Court swept aside the idea that federal courts could rein in state lawmakers’ power to draw legislative maps designed primarily to entrench their own party’s power.
The ruling, a 5-4 split with conservative justices in the majority, made it clear that partisan gerrymandering was here to stay. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said simply that federal courts had no authority to intervene on the issue, even if it means election outcomes can “seem unjust.”
With technological advances making it increasingly easy to surgically draw districts to maximize partisan advantages, both Republican and Democratic states have continued the practice.
That is now on view in Texas as Republicans plan to redraw congressional maps to further extend their dominance in the state and insulate against possible Democratic gains nationwide in the 2026 midterm elections, which will determine control of the House of Representatives for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
That has prompted Democrats in California and other states to threaten countermeasures.
Read the full story here.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger is launching her first major negative TV ad of the Virginia governor’s race, taking aim at Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears’ recent comments about federal government layoffs.
The 30-second spot, first shared with NBC News, features footage of a recent interview on CNN in which Earle-Sears dodged a question about whether she supported the layoffs and said she wanted to talk about “real issues.”
“Really? Not a real issue that thousands of Virginians are losing their jobs?” a narrator says in the ad, which is backed by a six-figure expenditure and will air in the Richmond and Norfolk media markets and on digital platforms throughout the state, according to Spanberger’s campaign.
“It’s a real issue that Sears supports Trump, not Virginians. Winsome Earle-Sears: So far right, she’s wrong for Virginia,” the narrator says.
Virginia, one of two states with a gubernatorial race this year, is home to more than 340,000 federal workers, according to census data. The layoffs from the early months of Trump’s second term are expected to be a top issue in the governor’s race. Spanberger, a former congresswoman, is competing against Earle-Sears to replace Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who cannot run for re-election due to term limits.
The Kremlin said this morning that a meeting between Trump and Putin has been agreed in principle and will happen in the “coming days.”
Trump revealed yesterday that he was hopeful of a meeting with his Russian counterpart in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine. It would be his first in-person discussion with Putin during his second term.
Read the full story here.
After months of delays and extensions, Trump’s comprehensive and sweeping tariffs slate took effect just after midnight ET, shifting his global trade reset into high gear.
Most imports into the United States will now face a baseline 10% duty, with the overall average effective tariff rate rising to more than 17% — the highest since 1935, during the Great Depression — thanks to higher duties on some of the biggest U.S. trading partners, according to the nonpartisan Yale Budget Lab think tank.
A wide variety of products will be hit. Tariffs will be collected on everything from European Union appliances and Japanese cars to food, furniture and toys from China and TVs from South Korea. Selected oil and gas imports, along with some smartphones and a suite of goods covered by a pre-existing trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, are not affected.
Together, the duties are the most significant move yet by a president set on tilting the global economy even more in favor of the United States.
Read the full story here.
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