Summary of the day
Donald Trump acknowledged that the sweeping tariffs he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, but said they were necessary to curb illegal immigration and the drug trade. “The USA has major deficits with Canada, Mexico, and China (and almost all countries!), owes 36 Trillion Dollars, and we’re not going to be the ‘Stupid Country’ any longer,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Top Democrats slammed Donald Trump’s tariff plans, warning that they will hit working families and small businesses hard. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, led the charge by saying the president’s threatened tariffs would likely “hit Americans in their wallets”. “It would be nice if Donald Trump could start focusing on getting the prices down instead of making them go up.”
Canada said it will take legal action under the relevant international bodies to challenge the 25% tariffs, a day after prime minster Justin Trudeau announced a wide array of concrete measures including a tit-for-tat 25% tariff phased in across C$155bn ($107bn) worth of US products.
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum also ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the US announcement. Sheinbaum said her government sought dialogue rather than confrontation with the US, but that Mexico had been forced to respond in kind. Mexico has been preparing possible retaliatory tariffs on US imports, ranging from 5% to 20%, on pork, cheese, fresh produce, manufactured steel and aluminum, according to reports.
China said it would challenge Trump’s 10% tariffs at the World Trade Organization and take unspecified countermeasures. China’s commerce ministry said the imposition of tariffs by the US “seriously violates” WTO rules, urging the US to “engage in frank dialogue and strengthen cooperation”.
Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been given access to the federal payment system, exposing the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans as well as details of public contractors who compete directly with Musk’s own businesses, Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, said.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio told Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, that Trump has determined that China’s influence threatens the Panama Canal and that immediate changes were needed or the Trump administration would take “measures necessary” to do so. Mulino, in response, said Panama’s sovereignty is “not in question”.
The Trump administration has revoked temporary protected status (TPS) for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the US, the New York Times reports. The federal TPS program allows for people to temporarily stay in the US if they cannot return safely to their home country. The termination means that those under TPS from Venezuela who received the protections in 2023 will lose their temporary status 60 days after the government publishes the termination notice, according to the Times.
Dozens more staff at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) were put on leave over the weekend, according to a report, bringing the total number of senior staff at the aid agency who have been put on leave over the past week close to 100. Meanwhile, two senior USAid security officials were also put on administrative leave after refusing to hand over classified documents to Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he wanted to see “strong trading relations” with the US. Britain’s home secretary, Yvette Cooper, warned that Trump’s tariff plans could have a “really damaging impact” on the global economy and growth.
Updated
In an effort to restrict abortion access, Wyoming Republicans authored a bill that could choke access to a host of life-saving medical procedures, from chemotherapy to heart surgery.
State judge Melissa Owens overturned Wyoming’s abortion bans in November 2024, citing the state’s constitutionally guaranteed right to healthcare. The Republican state senator Cheri Steinmetz and the bill’s eight co-sponsors took issue with the ruling and sought to draw up a definition of healthcare that excludes abortion.
“The intent of [Senate File] 125 is to do no harm and go back to that Hippocratic oath and look at healthcare through that lens,” Steinmeitz said.
Steinmetz says Senate File 125 offers a new definition of healthcare in Wyoming: “No act, treatment or procedure that causes harm to the heart, respiratory system, central nervous system, brain, skeletal system, jointed or muscled appendages or organ function shall be construed as healthcare.”
The bill carves out exceptions – for example, when such a procedure is required to save the life of a pregnant woman, or if “a person has no chance of meaningful recovery” without it. Fetal personhood is still on the books in Wyoming from 2023’s overturned “Life Is a Human Right Act”, but experts interviewed said that the murkiness of the bill’s language made it unclear if it would succeed at restricting abortion access – its intended purpose.
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