Trump asks US supreme court to overturn trade tariffs ruling
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump has asked the US supreme court to overturn a lower court decision that most of his sweeping trade tariffs were illegal.
The US president filed a petition late on Wednesday to ask for a review of last week’s federal appeals court ruling in Washington DC, which centred on his “liberation day” border taxes introduced on 2 April, which imposed levies of between 10% and 50% on most US imports, sending shock waves through global trade and markets.
The court found in a 7-4 ruling last Friday that Trump had overstepped his presidential powers when he invoked a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies to justify his “reciprocal” tariffs.
The decision was the biggest blow yet to Trump’s tariff policies, but the levies were left in place until 14 October – giving the administration time to ask the supreme court to review the decision.
Trump has now appealed and the supreme court is expected to review the case, although the justices must still agree to do so. The administration asked for that decision to be made by 10 September.
The appeal calls for an accelerated schedule with arguments being heard by 10 November, according to filings seen by Bloomberg. Justices could then rule by the end of the year.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
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Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio and hepatitis.
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The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced on Wednesday the creation of a West Coast Health Alliance aimed at safeguarding access to vaccines.
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A letter published on Wednesday from more than 1,000 past and present workers of the Department of Health and Human Services department (HHS) has demanded the resignation of Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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Donald Trump on Thursday will host more than two dozen technology and business leaders for a dinner, according to a White House official. The guests include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
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Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse signaled their support on Wednesday for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to the convicted sex offender.
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A so-called “missing minute” of CCTV footage, a key ingredient of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death in prison has been found, contradicting the assertion of Pam Bondi, the attorney general, that it was recorded over.
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A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.
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Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, said he backed the president’s threat to send federal troops to his state.
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Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, warned that the US military would continue to target vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels.
Key events
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr will appear before a congressional committee on Thursday, where he’s expected to face questions about turmoil at federal health agencies.
The US Senate finance committee has called Kennedy to a hearing about his plans to “Make America Healthy Again”.
But the health secretary is expected to face questions about layoffs and planned budget cuts that detractors say are wrecking the nation’s ability to prevent disease.
Kennedy recently fired Susan Monarez, a longtime government scientist he installed as the CDC director for less than a month and has sought to reshape the nation’s vaccine policies to match his long-standing suspicions about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots.
Donald Trump suggested yesterday that New Orleans could be his next target for deploying the national guard, potentially expanding the number of cities around the nation where he may send federal law enforcement.
Trump says the escalation is necessary because New Orleans has a “crime problem” but city leaders point out that crime rates have dropped considerably this year.
Republican governor Jeff Landry said on social media that Louisiana would take Trump’s assistance “from New Orleans to Shreveport!” but leaders of the Democratic-controlled city were less supportive.
“Marching troops into New Orleans is an unnecessary show of force in effort to create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said city council president JP Morrell.
Trump has already said he plans to send the national guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, DC, last month.
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that president Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the prestigious Ivy League school.
The decision by US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston marked a major legal victory for Harvard as it seeks to cut a deal that could bring an end to the White House’s multi-front conflict with the nation’s oldest and richest university, Reuters reported.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school became a central focus of the administration’s broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at US universities, which Trump says are gripped by antisemitic and “radical left” ideologies.
The administration cancelled hundreds of grants awarded to Harvard researchers on the grounds the school failed to do enough to address harassment of Jewish students on its campus.
Harvard sued, arguing the Trump administration was retaliating against it in violation of its free-speech rights after it refused to meet officials’ demands that it overhaul its governance, hiring and academic programs to align with their ideological agenda.
Jakub Krupa
The US president, Donald Trump, has said he was not considering pulling US troops out of Poland and pledged to stand with Warsaw “all the way” during a meeting with the country’s conservative nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, at the White House.
Backed by the populist rightwing opposition Law and Justice party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, Karol Nawrocki unexpectedly won Poland’s presidential election after running a campaign under a Trumpesque slogan of “Poland first, Poles first”.
The historian turned politician had met the US president before the election, securing his highly prized endorsement and presenting himself as someone who could safeguard Poland’s interests with the conservative US administration.
During their meeting in the Oval Office, Trump praised the Polish president for winning in a “pretty tough, pretty nasty race”, saying: “I don’t endorse too many people, but I endorsed him, and I was very proud of that, the job he’s done.”
Responding to a question from a Polish reporter, Trump declared he was not considering pulling US troops from Poland, despite growing concerns in the region about rumoured changes to the US force posture in Europe.
Richard Luscombe
Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio and hepatitis, said Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, on Wednesday in a speech during which he likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”.
Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is a longtime skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling “scientific nonsense” by public health advocates.
In his announcement at a press conference in Tampa hosted by DeSantis, Ladapo said every state vaccine requirement would be repealed, and that he expected the move would receive the blessing “of God”.
“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” said Ladapo, who altered data in a 2022 study about Covid vaccines in an attempt to exaggerate the risk to young men who received one.
“People have a right to make their own decisions. Who am I, as a government or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Our body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.”
Ladapo condemned lockdowns and vaccination requirements during the coronavirus pandemic as a time “when crazy things did happen”, and said that growing skepticism of vaccines were “reflections of God’s light against the darkness of tyranny and oppression”.
David Smith
A court ruling that blocked Donald Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans he alleged were part of a criminal gang has been hailed as “a victory for the rule of law”.
In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Trump administration using the 1798 law to justify rapid deportations.
Circuit judge Leslie Southwick, writing for the majority, rejected the administration’s assertion that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had engaged in a “predatory incursion” on US soil.
The Alien Enemies Act gives the government expansive powers to detain and deport citizens of hostile foreign nations, but only in times of war or during an “invasion or predatory incursion”.
Democrats welcomed the ruling by the fifth circuit, the first federal appeals court to rule directly on a 14 March presidential proclamation invoking the act.
Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, told the Guardian in a statement: “This president has repeatedly attempted to use wartime authorities like the Alien Enemies Act to threaten our fundamental constitutional rights.”
Shrai Popat
Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse signaled their support on Wednesday for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to the convicted sex offender, who died in a Manhattan prison in 2019.
Speaking outside the US Capitol, Anouska De Georgiou, a survivor of both Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, said that while “every day of this journey toward healing has come at a profound cost to my mental health”, she had chosen to be there because this legislation “really matters”.
The only motive to oppose the bill would be to “conceal wrongdoing”, she added, but also issued a plea to Donald Trump to use his power and influence to help release the full tranche of records on Epstein.
The section of the Capitol grounds, known as the House Triangle, was packed with reporters and demonstrators. Signs accusing the US president of “protecting pedophiles” were raised alongside placards demanding the administration “release the files”, and messages of support for survivors, reading “we believe you”. Many of those at the news conference told personal stories of how they were abused and trafficked. Annie Farmer, now 46, said she was only 16 when she was flown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein and Maxwell.
“For so many years, it felt like Epstein’s criminal behavior was an open secret,” Farmer said. “Not only did many others participate in the abuse, it is clear that many were aware of his interest in girls and very young women and chose to look the other way because it benefited them to do so.”
At the same press conference, the bill’s co-author, Republican representative Thomas Massie said that he is close to reaching the 218 signatures needed to bypass US House leadership and bring his bipartisan legislation, calling for the release of the Epstein files, to a floor vote.
“Hopefully they can find their spines,” the Kentucky lawmaker said of the Republican holdouts. “I’m calling on my colleagues to be one of the next two who sponsors this discharge petition.”
Trump to host tech CEOs for first event in newly renovated Rose Garden
President Donald Trump on Thursday will host more than two dozen technology and business leaders for a dinner in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden, according to a White House official.
The guests include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the official said.
The gathering highlights Trump’s complicated but evolving relationship with Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry, Reuters reported.
Once a source of frequent clashes over issues such as content moderation and antitrust scrutiny, the tech sector has recalibrated since Trump’s 2024 election victory.
Executives have sought closer ties with the Republican administration, aligning corporate policies with the White House’s push to roll back diversity and equity initiatives while courting Trump’s favor on artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
“The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.
The Trump administration purposefully chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday.
A complex inside the Louisiana state penitentiary, an immense rural prison better known as Angola, will be used to detain those whom Noem described as the “worst of the worst” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. Noem was speaking to reporters as she stood on the grounds of the facility near a new sign reading, “Louisiana Lockup.”
“This facility will hold the most dangerous of criminals,” Noem said, adding it had “absolutely” been chosen for its reputation.
Officials said 51 detainees were already being housed at Angola. But Louisiana governor Jeff Landry said he expects the building to be filled to capacity, expecting over 400 people to come in ensuing months, as president Donald Trump continues his large-scale attempt to remove millions of people suspected of entering the country illegally.
The dirt road to the new Ice facility meanders past lofty oak trees, green fields and other buildings – including a white church and a structure with a sign that says, “Angola Shake Down Team”.
The facility is surrounded by a fence with five rows of stacked barbed wire. Overlooking the outdoor area is a tower, where a guard paced back and forth.
At the prison entrance a sign reads: “You are entering the land of new beginnings.”
Trump asks US supreme court to overturn trade tariffs ruling
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump has asked the US supreme court to overturn a lower court decision that most of his sweeping trade tariffs were illegal.
The US president filed a petition late on Wednesday to ask for a review of last week’s federal appeals court ruling in Washington DC, which centred on his “liberation day” border taxes introduced on 2 April, which imposed levies of between 10% and 50% on most US imports, sending shock waves through global trade and markets.
The court found in a 7-4 ruling last Friday that Trump had overstepped his presidential powers when he invoked a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies to justify his “reciprocal” tariffs.
The decision was the biggest blow yet to Trump’s tariff policies, but the levies were left in place until 14 October – giving the administration time to ask the supreme court to review the decision.
Trump has now appealed and the supreme court is expected to review the case, although the justices must still agree to do so. The administration asked for that decision to be made by 10 September.
The appeal calls for an accelerated schedule with arguments being heard by 10 November, according to filings seen by Bloomberg. Justices could then rule by the end of the year.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
-
Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio and hepatitis.
-
The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced on Wednesday the creation of a West Coast Health Alliance aimed at safeguarding access to vaccines.
-
A letter published on Wednesday from more than 1,000 past and present workers of the Department of Health and Human Services department (HHS) has demanded the resignation of Robert F Kennedy Jr.
-
Donald Trump on Thursday will host more than two dozen technology and business leaders for a dinner, according to a White House official. The guests include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
-
Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse signaled their support on Wednesday for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to the convicted sex offender.
-
A so-called “missing minute” of CCTV footage, a key ingredient of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death in prison has been found, contradicting the assertion of Pam Bondi, the attorney general, that it was recorded over.
-
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.
-
Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, said he backed the president’s threat to send federal troops to his state.
-
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, warned that the US military would continue to target vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels.
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