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Commerce secretary says Trump will make decision on tariffs this afternoon
A day after Donald Trump imposed economically disruptive tariffs on Canada and Mexico, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg Television the president will make a decision about the levies this afternoon.
Lutnick’s comments were unclear, but seemed to imply the president may offer some relief to products impacted by the duties, which many economists fear will disrupt trade and raise prices for American consumers.
“The president is thinking about it. He’s thinking about autos. He’s thinking about USMCA,” Lutnick said, referring to the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada negotiated during his first term. “He’s going to come up with a plan this afternoon. We’re going to announce that plan.”
Here’s more on the potential impacts of the tariffs:
Democrats slam Trump's lengthy speech to Congress
Robert Tait
Democrats panned Donald Trump’s first prime-time speech to Congress since returning to the White House as reaction to the address revealed a country still deeply split on political lines and an opposition party unsure of how to deal with his radical agenda.
The Democrats’ exclusion from the corridors of powers – Democrats are in the minority in both the Senate and House of Representatives – has left them with limited options on how to effectively respond to Trump’s hardline 1hr 40min oration that amounted to a celebration of his purported achievements during his six weeks back in office.
Some of the party’s rising stars, including Chris Murphy, a vocal senator from Connecticut, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive representative from New York, protested by staying away.
Those who attended showed their displeasure by turning their backs on Trump as he spoke and holding up placards with messages like “No kings”, “Save Medicaid” and “Musk steals” in reference to the leading government cost-cutting role being played by the billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The protest was disparagingly compared to bingo signs by one normally sympathetic commentator, Symne Sanders-Townsend, a host on the MSNBC channel.
“Why are democrats just sitting there? The signs are not landing. It is giving bingo! Sigh,” she posted on X.
The audience of silent, grim-faced Democrats – some of them holding Ukrainian flags or wearing garments in the country’s colours – provided Trump with the perfect prop to troll them in real time.
Joseph Gedeon
Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin followed Donald Trump’s record-long joint congressional address on Tuesday by focusing on the risk of a declining democracy, directly challenging citizens to take an active role in holding elected officials accountable – herself included.
The first-term Democratic senator, who represents a state won by the president, explained how preserving democracy requires constant, active participation from voters.
“Our democracy, our very system of government, has been the aspiration of the world, and right now it’s at risk,” Slotkin said in the official Democratic response. “It’s at risk when the president decides you can pick and choose what rules you want to follow, when he ignores court orders and the constitution itself, or when elected leaders stand by and just let it happen.”
The first-term senator outlined a three-step approach for citizens: staying informed, monitoring elected representatives’ voting records, and actively organizing around issues that matter to any given person. She framed citizen oversight as “American as apple pie”.
Robert Mackey
Donald Trump’s marathon address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday was littered with false claims, many of them falsehoods he has previously stated, been corrected on, and continued to repeat regardless.
Here are some of the main statements he made that are just not true:
Trump administration lists over 300 federal government buildings for sale
The Trump administration has listed over 300 buildings for sale in a further move to gut the federal government. It describes the properties as “not core to government operations”.
In a posting to US general services administration website, the administration says the 320 properties across multiple states are “designated for disposal”.
It says:
We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties for disposal. Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.
There has been some early reaction on Wednesday morning from Denmark to the portion of Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday which addressed his desire to expand the US to include Greenland.
The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, speaking in Helsinki, said that “the most important part of that speech” was when the US president said his country will “respect the right to Greenlandic self-determination”.
Acknowledging that Denmark and the US have a common interest with the United States with regards to security in the Arctic, he said: “We are ready to work with our American friends on achieving that, but of course it would be based on the fact that we have a kingdom of Denmark.”
Denmark has said Greenland is not for sale. Opinion polls suggest that most Greenlanders oppose joining the US, but also wish ultimately to gain independence from Denmark.
In his address to Congress, Trump said:
I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the US.
We need Greenland for national security and even international security. And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it – one way or the other, we’re going to get it.
We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before. It’s a very small population but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security.
French president Emmanuel Macron is considering travelling again to Washington along with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and UK prime minister Keir Starmer to meet US president Donald Trump, government spokesperson Sophie Primas said on Wednesday.
Primas was speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the French cabinet.
Our video team has put together this set of clips from Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
IRS staffing could halve – reports
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of US politics and the Donald Trump administration. I’m Tom Ambrose.
We start with news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is considering reducing its workforce by as much as 50%, according to reports. The agency has already laid off about 7,000 of its 90,000 employees since Donald Trump came to power.
Federal agencies have been given until 13 March to formulate cost and staff reduction plans and submit them to the White House.
Associated Press reports that, according to two anonymous sources familiar with IRS plans, it is proposing “a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts” will deliver the huge cut in headcount.
John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner, has said that cuts on this scale would render the IRS “dysfunctional”.
In his marathon address to Congress last night, a jocular Donald Trump touted his administration’s “swift and unrelenting action” and praised the work of his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who has led his administration’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government through his so-called “department of government efficiency”. Democratic lawmakers protested with placards that read “lies” and “false” through the speech, which lasted an hour and 40 minutes.
You can read our story here
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The president’s speech was littered with false claims he has previously been corrected on but continues to repeat – here are some of those “facts” checked
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He doubled down on his expansionist rhetoric, saying the administration was in the process of “reclaiming the Panama canal” and repeating his threat to take control of Greenland: “One way or the other, we’re going to get it”. The president has also recently stated that the US will “own” the Gaza Strip
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The dollar has fallen to the lowest level since November, after Trump said his new tariffs will cause “a little disturbance” in his Congress speech
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Responding to Trump’s speech, Sen Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said that Ronald Reagan “must be rolling in his grave” after last week’s Oval Office spat with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump “cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin”, and asserted that Trump would have “lost” the cold war
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Democratic Rep Al Green of Texas was ejected for an outburst during Trump’s speech. He later told the media “It’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president”
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The Trump administration has listed over 300 federal buildings for sale. It describes the properties as “not core to government operations”
