President Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday that the U.S. will have a fair deal with China. The president’s high tariffs have sparked a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Beijing has a 125% tariff on American goods, which came in response to the 145% tariff the Trump administration put on Chinese goods. It is unclear whether policy changes will come with Trump’s change in tone.
NPR’s Asma Khalid tells Up First. If the tariffs stay in place, trade between China and the U.S. will virtually halt. The change in tone is also fundamental to the stock market and the economic uncertainty that Trump’s tariffs created. The president initially acknowledged that there could be short-term economic pain, but it would be worth it. Khalid says his team has been boasting about striking deals. Anna Ashton, who was with the U.S.-China Business Council for years, says the White House’s constant threats and “wild swings” in commitment to those threats make it unlikely that China’s President Xi Jinping will come to the table to negotiate.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance are pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept a U.S.-backed peace deal. On Truth Social, Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy after he rejected a proposal to accept Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The tensions between the U.S. and Ukraine came as both countries worked with European officials yesterday in London to discuss ways to end the war.
- 🎧 The White House has not publicly offered specifics on the peace plan, but it clearly heavily favors Russia on paper, NPR’s Charles Maynes says. For Ukraine, it appears that acknowledging the Crimean peninsula is a non-starter. Trump wants peace now and sees leverage over Kyiv as the quickest way to get there, which is why Maynes believes the president is asking a lot of Ukraine and so little of Russia.
The actions include proposals to eliminate college DEI programs and new discipline guidance for public schools. One of the higher education orders directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “overhaul” the college accreditation system. Another action threatens to revoke federal university grants if schools don’t complete “full and timely disclosure of foreign funding.”
