The Latest: Trump’s tariffs blocked and Musk quits government role

A federal court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law swiftly throwing into doubt Trump s signature set of economic policies that have rattled global financial markets frustrated agreement partners and raised broader fears about inflation intensifying and the economic system slumping Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration Musk s departure informed Wednesday evening marks the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs the evisceration of leadership agencies and reams of litigation Despite the upheaval the billionaire entrepreneur struggled in the unfamiliar surroundings of Washington and he accomplished far less than he hoped Trump issues pardons for politicians a union leader and a rapper Trump issued a series of pardons on Wednesday awarding them to a former New York congressman a Connecticut governor a rapper known as NBA YoungBoy a labor union leader and a onetime Army officer who flaunted safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic Rubio says the US will begin revoking the visas of Chinese students Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday the U S will begin revoking the visas of certain Chinese students including those studying in critical fields China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States behind only India Here s the Latest US says financial market contracted in first quarter amid Trump business war tumult Trump has now overseen the first shrinking of the U S commercial sector in three years The gross domestic product was brought down by a surge in imports as companies in the United States hurried to bring in foreign goods before the president imposed massive import taxes The January-March drop in the nation s output of goods and services reversed a gain in the fourth quarter of The Commerce Department also says that consumer spending also slowed sharply And the Labor Department says more Americans filed for jobless aid last week with applications jumping by higher than the forecast The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits increased to million Chinese students anxious and angry after Rubio vows to revoke visas Chinese students studying in the U S are scrambling to figure out their futures after Rubio stated that specific students would have their visas revoked This is a new version of Chinese Exclusion Act mentioned Linqin a Chinese apprentice at Johns Hopkins University who appealed to be identified only by his first name out of fear of retaliation He was referring to a th-century law that prohibited Chinese from immigrating to the U S and banned Chinese people already in the U S from getting citizenship He mentioned Wednesday was the first time he thought about leaving the U S after spending one-third of his life here The issue of Chinese students studying overseas has long been a point of tension in the bilateral relationship During Trump s first term in China s Ministry of Learning warned students about visa issues in the U S with rising rejection rates and shortening of visas Read more about the reaction from students Trump rejects claim he s chickening out on tariffs just because he keeps changing rates Trump wants the world to know he s no chicken just because he s repeatedly backed off high tariff threats The U S Republican president s tendency to levy extremely high import taxes and then retreat has created what s known as the TACO deal an acronym coined by The Financial Times Robert Armstrong that stands for Trump Inevitably Chickens Out Markets generally sell off when Trump makes his tariff threats and then recover after he backs down Trump was visibly offended when requested about the phrase Wednesday and rejected the idea that he s chickening out saying that the reporter s inquiry was nasty You call that chickening out Trump stated It s called negotiation adding that he sets a ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit you know a little bit until the figure is more reasonable Read more about Trump s comments Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US will begin revoking the visas of Chinese students Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Wednesday the U S will begin revoking the visas of selected Chinese students including those studying in critical fields China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States behind only India In the - school year more than international students were from China making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States Under President Trump s leadership the U S State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Safeguard to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields Rubio wrote The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn t instantly respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday night The action comes at a time of intensifying scrutiny of the ties between U S higher schooling and China House Republicans this month pressed Duke University to cut its ties with a Chinese university saying it allowed Chinese students to gain access to federally funded research at Duke Read more about the U S revoking Chinese apprentice visas Trump issues a series of pardons for politicians a union leader and a rapper Trump issued a series of pardons on Wednesday awarding them to a former New York congressman a Connecticut governor a rapper known as NBA YoungBoy a labor union leader and a onetime Army officer who flaunted safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic Trump s actions mixed his willingness to pardon high-profile Republicans and other supporters donors and friends with the influence of Alice Marie Johnson whom Trump just now named his pardon czar after he offered a pardon to her in Trump also commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover a former Chicago gang leader serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Colorado Hoover was first imprisoned in connection with a murder in and was convicted of running a criminal enterprise in but later renounced his criminal past and petitioned for a reduced sentence Gaulden s and the other pardons were authenticated Wednesday evening by two White House authorities who spoke only on background to detail actions that had not yet been formally made inhabitants Read more about the pardons Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading effort to slash federal leadership Elon Musk is leaving his governing body role as a top adviser to Trump after spearheading efforts to reduce and overhaul the federal bureaucracy His departure broadcasted Wednesday evening marks the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs the evisceration of authorities agencies and reams of litigation Despite the upheaval the billionaire entrepreneur struggled in the unfamiliar conditions of Washington and he accomplished far less than he hoped Musk s role working for Trump was inevitably intended to be temporary and he had in recent times signaled that he would be shifting his attention back to running his businesses such as the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX As my scheduled time as a Special Authorities Employee comes to an end I would like to thank President realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending he wrote The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the establishment Read more about Musk s departure What happens to Trump s tariffs now that a court has knocked them down The court s decision blocks the tariffs Trump slapped last month on almost all U S trading partners and levies he imposed before that on China Mexico and Canada Wendy Cutler a former U S deal official who is now vice president at the Asia Society Protocol Institute says the court s decision throws the president s arrangement guidelines into turmoil Partners negotiating hard during the -day day tariff pause period may be tempted to hold off making further concessions to the U S until there is more legal clarity she declared Likewise companies will have to reassess the way they run their supply chains perhaps speeding up shipments to the United States to offset the threat that the tariffs will be reinstated on appeal For now the arrangement court s ruling destroys the Trump administration s rationale for using federal crisis powers to impose tariffs which oversteps congressional authority and contravenes any notion of due process commented Eswar Prasad professor of business agenda at Cornell University The ruling makes it clear that the broad tariffs imposed unilaterally by Trump represent an overreach of executive power Read more about what could happen to Trump s tariffs Federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs under urgency powers law A federal court on Wednesday blocked Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law swiftly throwing into doubt Trump s signature set of economic policies that have rattled global financial markets frustrated deal partners and raised broader fears about inflation intensifying and the business sector slumping The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based U S Court of International Agreement came after several lawsuits arguing Trump s Liberation Day tariffs exceeded his authority and left the country s business protocol dependent on his whims Trump says he has the power to act because the country s agreement deficits amount to a national urgency The court determined the International Crisis Economic Powers Act does not authorize the use of tariffs The plaintiffs argued that the bargain deficit is not an crisis because the U S has run a contract deficit with the rest of the world for consecutive years Read more about the federal court s ruling Source