General
Tuesday Briefing
Deals to avert a North American trade war.
President Trump made deals with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Monday.Credit…Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times; Eric Lee/The New York Times; Justin Tang/The Canadian Press, via AP
Trump pauses tariffs on Mexico and Canada
President Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada struck last-minute deals yesterday to postpone by 30 days the imposition of punishing tariffs on goods exported to the U.S. A 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods took effect just after midnight in the U.S.
The frenzy of last-minute maneuvering demonstrated Trump’s willingness to use tariffs as a source of leverage against the most important U.S. trading partners, in what he called an effort to curb drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Imports from Mexico, Canada and China account for more than a third of the products brought into the U.S. each year.
China: China was still preparing its response to the tariffs yesterday. Trump’s aggressive “America First” foreign policy holds both promise and peril for Beijing, as it seeks to strengthen ties with alienated U.S. allies.
Europe: Tariffs “will definitely happen with the E.U.,” Trump told the BBC on Sunday, and they are coming “pretty soon.” He doubled down on the threat yesterday, complaining about deficits in auto and farm products.
What to know: Trump is wielding a strong U.S. economy like a weapon. That approach has potential upsides — but also some costs, economists say.
More on the Trump administration
Trump said he wanted to strike a deal with Ukraine, whereby the U.S. exchanges its aid for rare earth minerals.
Elon Musk is creating major upheaval as his team sweeps through agencies, in what has been an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual. Here’s what to know.
Democratic lawmakers joined a protest outside the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been targeted for closure by Musk. (Our reporters explain what U.S.A.I.D. is, and why Musk wants to close it.)
The State Department has fired about 60 contractors who work for its democracy, human rights and labor bureau.
Guantánamo Bay is preparing to receive as many as 30,000 deportees.
Trump accused the South African government of confiscating land and threatened to cut off aid. President Cyril Ramaphosa rejected the false claim.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote today on Tulsi Gabbard’s bid to be the next director of national intelligence.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from imposing a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans.
The C.D.C. purged from its website thousands of pages with terms such as “transgender,” “L.G.B.T.” and “pregnant person” to comply with an executive order barring any material that promoted “gender ideology.”
