The Latest: China retaliates against Trump with tariffs of their own
China countered President Donald Trump’sacross-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select U.S. imports. It will also launch an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico have all agreed to pause planned tariffs for at least a month as negotiations over border security continue.
Here’s the latest:
Senators offer some ‘weird,’ ‘wild,’ parting words on RFK Jr.
Kennedy’s quick committee vote did not go without some parting words from senators.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said that maybe Kennedy as a non-health care professional will be just the kind of “disrupter” needed to improve the nation’s health outcomes.
“I hope he goes wild,” Tillis said, listing all the ways the nominee could shake things up.
But Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont spoke about Kennedy’s odd behavior, including leaving a dead bear in New York’s Central Park.
“These are just weird things,” he said before the 14-13 party line vote sent the nomination to the full Senate for confirmation.
Cassidy said JD Vance, White House influenced his vote for RFK Jr.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning. I want to thank VP JD specifically for his honest counsel,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician, posted on X. “With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.”
Cassidy had expressed deep concern ahead of the vote about Kennedy’s views on routine childhood vaccinations. He said he would speak on the Senate floor later Tuesday morning.
Tuesday’s vote sets up a high stakes campaign to pressure the full Senate to confirm Kennedy in the coming weeks. If four GOP senators and all Democrats vote against his confirmation, it would fail.
Read more on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination
Senate committee advances RFK Jr. for health secretary despite worry over his vaccine stance
Kennedy cleared his first hurdle to becoming the nation’s top health official on Tuesday with the Senate finance committee voting to advance his nomination for a floor vote.
Republicans voted together to advance his nomination, while Democrats all opposed.
His nomination now faces the full Senate, where concerns include the work he’s done to sow doubts around vaccine safety and his potential to profit off lawsuits over drugmakers. To gain control of the $1.7 trillion Health and Human Services agency, Kennedy will need support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.
Read more on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination
A key Republican senator enters the RFK hearing
The Senate Finance Committee began a meeting to vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination, though one key Republican wasn’t there at first.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician who had raised concerns over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, finally entered the hearing room several minutes after it was underway. Cassidy’s jaw was clenched and his face downcast.
Cassidy then voted in favor of advancing Kennedy’s nomination for health secretary to the Senate floor with a simple “aye.”
Trump says Musk is doing his bidding
Elon Musk is rapidly consolidating control over large swaths of the federal government with President Donald Trump ’s blessing, sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and dismantling a leading source of humanitarian assistance.
Working with stunning speed and scope, the world’s richest man has created an alternative power structure for the purpose of cutting spending and pushing out employees, none of it with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
Trump named Musk a “special government employee,” subject to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures. He’s given Musk office space in the White House complex to oversee the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, sending teams into federal agencies Trump has vowed to abolish to gather information and deliver edicts.
Republicans defend Musk as simply carrying out Trump’s slash-and-burn campaign promises. Democrats accuse Musk of leading a coup from within by amassing unaccountable and illegal power.
Read more on Musk’s moves
White House correspondents’ group announces Amber Ruffin as dinner entertainer
Ruffin is an Emmy- and Tony-award nominated writer, comedian, host, performer and best-selling author who soon will return for the second season of the comedy-news series, “Have I Got News For You,” which she leads with fellow comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Michael Ian Black.
She also writes for and appears on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual black-tie dinner is set for April 26 in Washington.
“She has the ability to walk the line between blistering commentary and humor all while provoking her audience to think about the important issues of the day. I’m thrilled and honored she said yes,” said Eugene Daniels of Politico, president of the association.
Mexico surges troops to its US border
Mexico began moving troops Tuesday to reinforce its shared border in the United States, part of the deal President Claudia Sheinbaum reached with U.S. President Donald Trump Monday to suspend 25% tariffs that were set to go into effect.
AP observed more than 100 members of the National Guard boarded a plane Tuesday morning in the southeastern city of Merida, bound for Ciudad Juarez. Additional units were scheduled to depart Cancun and Campeche. Still more were going by road.
A similar deal to surge troops and head off tariffs was made in 2019 between Trump and then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. More than 10,000 Mexican troops stationed along the border have been unable to stifle persistent violence or break the tight grip of organized crime on the smuggling of drugs, migrants and guns.
US negotiates to have El Salvador imprison deportees and jailed US citizens
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio left El Salvador on Tuesday with an agreement that President Nayib Bukele will accept jailed U.S. citizens as well as deportees from the U.S. of any nationality and put them in his nation’s prisons.
Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said.
“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said of migrants of all nationalities detained in the United States. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”
Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying El Salvador would accept only “convicted criminals” and would charge a fee that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
Read more about whether the U.S. will outsource its prisons to El Salvador
What kind of tariffs is China threatening?
China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday.
“The U.S.’s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” the State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. “It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.”
The impact on U.S. exports may be limited. Though the U.S. is the biggest exporter of liquid natural gas globally, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the U.S. exported 173,247 million cubic feet of LNG to China, representing about 2.3% of total natural gas exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Read more about China’s tariffs against the U.S.