Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back at it on Thursday. Thanks for reading. Here are the latest developments:
As Donald Trump reportedly weights an attack on Iran, the United States military told the president it could be ready to begin strikes as soon as Saturday, CBS News reports.
NYU Langone Health, one of New York City’s major hospital networks, announced this week that it will shut down its gender‑affirming care program for minors, as the Trump administration escalates threats to strip federal funding from providers that treat trans youth.
The White House called it “deeply unfortunate that Pope Leo XIV decided not join the Board of Peace, a potential rival to the United Nations initially empowered to rebuild Gaza under Trump’s direction, according to a very vague mandate.
Two weeks after he asked an aide to post a racist video clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes on social media, Trump welcomed Black supporters to a Black History Month event at the White House; Senator Tim Scott, who called the video, “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House”, was not present.
Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to spur the domestic production of the weedkiller glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup which his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has argued on court causes cancer.
California is familiar terrain for Bernie Sanders, who won California on Super Tuesday during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Sanders has long called for higher taxes on the “billionaire class” and suggested the California proposal should be a model for the nation.
Speaking before the Vermont Senator on Wednesday evening, Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff at SEIU-UHW, said the proposal was simply an effort to “make billionaires pay their fair share”.
“We’re here tonight because millions of Californians are about to lose their health care, with massive federal funding cuts,” Jimenez said.
“If we don’t act, our friends and our family will have to drive twice as far – will have to wait twice as long – for the life-saving care that they’re going to need,” she continued. “And for what? So that billionaires can own another yacht?”
Opponents have argued that the tax would stifle innovation, pushing entrepreneurs and investors to flee to lower-tax states and potentially cost jobs.
Even in deep-blue California, the politics are complicated. The effort is already facing deep-pocketed opposition from business leaders and tech titans, who have poured money into efforts to defeat the tax. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and other billionaires are bankrolling a new political group that is backing a series of competing ballot initiatives that would nullify the union-backed proposal. Brin, one of the world’s wealthiest people, is among the recent Silicon Valley magnates to cut ties with the state where he made his fortune.
Backers will also have to overcome opposition from the out-going Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who has warned that the proposed tax would erode the state’s long-term tax base, eventually forcing cuts to public schools and other services. At a Bloomberg News event in San Francisco last month, Newsom said he was “burdened by the facts” and argued that a billionaire tax would put California at a competitive disadvantage against other states. “You would have a windfall one time and then over the years you would see a significant reduction in taxes because taxpayers will move,” he said.
Updated
