Senate confirms Mehmet Oz for top CMS post; National Security Agency director fired

Former Vice President Harris Kamala Harris said in a speech today that a "sense of fear" is taking hold in the country that has resulted in a surrender by people and organizations to "clearly unconstitutional threats."

"We’re seeing people stay quiet. We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats," Harris said at the Leading Women Defined Summit in California. "These are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country."

"There were many things that we knew would happen, many — I’m not here to say I told you so," Harris said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Harris did not mention Trump by name or point to a specific action of his administration.

Trump yesterday officially fulfilled a campaign promise to unleash sweeping tariffs, a move that has sparked fears of a global trade war and prompted a major question about what has become the centerpiece of his economic agenda: What’s his endgame?

In both size and scope, Trump’s ultimate blueprint for global tariffs — a 10% baseline tariff on virtually every country, with higher numbers on countries with which the United States has larger trade deficits — was more than most expected. It has left global financial markets tumbling and Trump’s Republican supporters trying to thread the political needle of not criticizing him while also understanding the economic peril the tariff plan may usher in ahead of 2026 midterm elections in which the GOP will try to defend its slim House and Senate majorities.

Trump’s team has so far not had a clear message to either explain the strategy behind the tariffs that his political allies can echo or his thought process behind the decision to go much further than even supporters were expecting.

What’s more, multiple elements of the sweeping measures made it seem as if the administration rushed through the process — including its decision to levy tariffs on uninhabited islands and its initially listing tariff numbers on the White House list published today that were different from the ones on the chart Trump held in the Rose Garden yesterday.

Read the full story here.

The Republican-led Senate voted 52-48 today to begin debate on a budget blueprint for a multitrillion-dollar package to pass Trump’s agenda.

The measure calls for a steep tax cut and a spending increase for immigration enforcement and a Pentagon expansion, alongside unspecified spending cuts and a $5 trillion debt limit increase. It is likely to substantially increase the budget deficit.

Every Republican voted for the measure, except Rand Paul of Kentucky. Democrats unanimously voted against it.

“The Senate Budget plan gives us the tools that we need to get our shared priorities done, including certain PERMANENT Tax Cuts, Spending Cuts Energy, Historic Investments in Defense, Border, and much more,” Trump wrote on social media yesterday.

Read the full story here.

Former federal prosecutors and outside organizations raised alarms this week over the nomination of Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to take over as the top federal prosecutor in Washington on a permanent basis.

Martin — who backed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and advocated for defendants in Jan. 6 Capitol riot cases — had no prosecutorial experience before Trump made him interim U.S. attorney on Inauguration Day. And he has taken a number of highly unusual and political actions since he took over the position on a temporary basis.

Yesterday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a hearing on Martin’s nomination, which would break from standard practice for nominees for U.S. attorney positions. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., announced this week that he would place a hold on Martin’s nomination, which could delay a vote on his nomination.

In a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week and obtained by NBC News, more than 100 former assistant U.S. attorneys who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia signed a “Statement of Conscience and Principle” laying out why they see Martin as unfit.

Read the full story here.

A federal judge in Rhode Island tonight granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Health and Human Services from terminating $11 billion in public health grants appropriated by Congress.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy ruled from the bench after a hearing this afternoon.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday by 23 states and the District of Columbia, plaintiffs argued that the cancellation was abrupt and callous.

“Despite the critical importance of these programs, HHS terminated them with the stroke of a pen and for the flimsiest of reasons,” they argued in their suit. “According to HHS, these programs were terminated 'for cause' — not because of any failure on the part of Plaintiff States to comply with the terms of their grants and cooperative agreements, but instead because HHS claimed that '[n]ow that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary.'”

Sen. Cory Booker’s Oura ring wants him to “pay attention” to his wellness.

The popular health-monitoring device that measures stress and tracks sleep didn't have great news for Booker, D-N.J., when he pulled an all-nighter and then some giving a marathon speech on the Senate floor this week.

The ring’s statistics show that Booker didn’t sleep during his 25 hours protesting the Trump administration's policies and that he’s now suffering because of it. His stress levels are high, and his body hasn’t been able to fully recover, according to screenshots of the app shared with NBC News.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he wants tech billionaire Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, "to stay as long as possible."

But he also said, “There’ll be a point where he’s going to have to leave," in part because of the companies he runs.

Asked by a reporter how long he expected Musk, classified as a special government employee, would work in his administration, he responded, "I mean, as long as he'd like."

As of this afternoon, no call had been scheduled between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to two administration officials. Trump’s inner circle is advising him not to have a call with Putin until he commits to a full ceasefire, the officials said.

The administration officials cautioned that Trump could decide he wants to talk to Putin suddenly. But they said he has been advised that a phone call isn't a good idea unless Putin has conveyed to the White House that he agrees to a full ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he planned to talk to Putin this week. He also said he was “very angry” at Putin for saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should step down.

Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev met with White House officials and Republican lawmakers at the White House last night, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the meetings. It’s not clear whether Trump dropped in on the meeting at any point. 

A coalition of 19 states sued today to block an executive order Trump signed last week aimed at imposing new requirements, such as proof of citizenship, on federal elections.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, says Trump's executive order, which declares proof of citizenship a requirement to register to vote, "unconstitutionally treats ... States as mere instruments of the President’s policy agenda."

The lawsuit alleges that Trump's order interferes with states' constitutional power to regulate their elections and usurps power from Congress on legislation and appropriations.

"It bears emphasizing: the President has no power to do any of this. Neither the Constitution nor Congress has authorized the President to impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements or to modify State mail-ballot procedures," the lawsuit says.

Trump won't be present today for the dignified transfer of four U.S. soldiers at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

Instead, he'll be attending a LIV Golf dinner reception in Florida.

The White House and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on which administration officials might be in attendance.

The soldiers died during a training exercise in Lithuania. They were honored during a dignified departure ceremony from Lithuania, with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and other dignitaries paying tribute.

Trump's helicopter, Marine One, had a flat tire on the tarmac in Florida today.

He ended up taking a different helicopter to Doral, landing there at 5:35 p.m. after a brief delay.

Trump backed an effort led in part by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to allow remote voting for House lawmakers who are new parents. An impasse over the effort this week brought the House floor to a halt.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One today that he has spoken to Luna and supports her initiative, while emphasizing that he understands the perspective of critics who've deemed it "controversial."

"I like the idea of being able to, if you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote. I’m in favor of that," Trump said.

He ultimately said he would defer to Speaker Mike Johnson, who has so far resisted Luna's effort to change voting rules. Johnson, R-La., also discouraged rank-and-file Republicans from supporting her proxy voting bill.

Trump said that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today and that Netanyahu may visit the United States as soon as next week.

"I spoke to him today," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in response to a question about whether he had been in touch with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu may visit Washington "in the not too distant future, maybe next week," Trump said.

"We’ll speak about Israel, and we’ll speak about what’s going on. That’s another thing we’d like to get solved," he added.

Trump defended his tariffs to reporters aboard Air Force One today, characterizing his decision to place penalties on imports from more than 180 countries and territories as a negotiating tactic to spur U.S. investments and aid in important business decisions, like the sale of TikTok.

"We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariff? The tariffs give us great power to negotiate," he said.

Trump signed an order in January giving TikTok's Chinese-based owner, ByteDance, until April 5 to sell it to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide ban.

Trump told reporters today that "we're very close to a deal" on TikTok. It is unclear whether Chinese officials have tried to tie the platform to tariffs amid the negotiations over its ownership.

Several states were notified this morning that the federal grant funding they rely on to operate local libraries and museums has been terminated. Since then, a petition from the only PAC dedicated to bolstering voter support for local libraries has gained just under 55,000 signatures urging the Trump administration to restore the Institute of Museum and Library Services to its full capacity. 

California, Connecticut and Washington got the notices days after agencywide layoffs and funding cuts were ordered at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a small federal agency responsible for delegating the grants state libraries use to operate community-based programs. 

The petition, titled Stop Trump’s E.O. Attacks on Federal Funding for Libraries, urges Americans to demonstrate their support for a repeal of the executive order Trump signed last month that all but shut down the IMLS. He signed the order reducing the agency to only its “statutory functions” on March 14, just hours after he approved Congress’ government funding bill that sought to fund the agency at its 2024 levels through September. 

The Senate voted to confirm celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by a party-line vote of 53-45.

Oz came under fire as he was asked whether he may have underpaid Medicare and Social Security taxes, per a Senate Dem memo. 

The judge presiding over the Alien Enemies Act case said at a hearing today that he's weighing contempt proceedings over the administration's failure to comply with his orders not to carry out deportations using the rarely used wartime law.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg repeatedly pressed Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign about why his March 15 order halting deportations of men alleged to be Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador wasn't followed. Boasberg had directed that any flights that were in the air at the time return to the United States until he had time to weigh the deportees' due process claims, but two such flights didn't return.

Ensign told Boasberg that he passed the order along to appropriate officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department and hadn't been aware that flights were in the air at the time. Asked who decided the planes should not be turned around, Ensign said he didn't know.

Trump told reporters today he expects his sweeping tariffs on nearly all U.S. imports will cause the country and its stock markets to "boom," even thogh global and domestic markets plummeted in reaction.

"The rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal. They’ve taken advantage of us for many, many years. For many years, we’ve been at the wrong side of the ball. And I’ll tell you what, I think it’s going to be unbelievable," Trump said after a reporter asked him how he thought the tariff rollout was going amid negative market reactions.

He added, "You’ll see how things turn out; our country’s going to boom," saying there is "almost a $7 trillion investment coming into our country." He did not specify whether the investment he referred to was the money he expects the United States to recoup from the new tariffs or whether it would be the result of his promised investments in domestic manufacturing.

Following Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on goods imported to the U.S., many world leaders are vowing to impose their own countermeasures. NBC News’ Molly Hunter breaks down which countries could be the most affected by the president’s tariffs and how world leaders are responding. 

The Pentagon Office of the Inspector General just announced a subject evaluation into allegations that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used an unclassified commercially available messaging app — Signal —to discuss classified information about military actions in Yemen.

The inspector general's announcement is in response to a request in a March 26 letter from the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In addition to looking at whether Hegseth complied with rules governing classified information, the inspector general will also look at whether rules about record retention were followed. 

This comes after The Atlantic magazine revealed that its top editor was added to a Signal group chat that was used by Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials to discuss upcoming military strikes in Yemen.

Hegseth and other administration officials have maintained that there was no classified information shared in the chat. 

The Senate today confirmed attorney Dean John Sauer as Trump's solicitor general, the person at the Justice Department who represents the government in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sauer had a high-profile victory in the high court last year, when he argued Trump’s successful immunity case. The former Missouri solicitor general had his nomination confirmed by a 52-45 party line vote.

The confirmation means four top spots at the DOJ are filled with former Trump lawyers. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi represented Trump in one of his impeachment trials, while Deputy AG Todd Blanche represented him in multiple cases, including the New York criminal case where he was convicted of falsifying business records. One of Blanche's co-counsels in that case was Emile Bove, who's now principal associate deputy attorney general.

Trump has also named another of his attorneys in that case, Alina Habba, as interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., harshly criticized Trump's tariffs this afternoon in a social media post, saying "the long-term prosperity of American industry and workers requires working with our allies, not against them."

"With so much at stake globally, the last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China’s predatory and unfair trade practices," McConnell, a former Senate majority leader, wrote on X.

McConnell was one of four Republican senators who voted with Democrats this week for a measure that would block tariffs on Canadian products. The resolution isn't expected to pass the House.

"As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most," McConnell wrote. "Tariffs drive up the cost of goods and services. They are a tax on everyday working Americans."

Once called “America’s Doctor,” Donald Trump’s pick to head Medicare is now more known for dubious promotion of supplements and hormones unsupported by scientific evidence.

Read the full story here.

The Senate voted this afternoon to advance Dr. Mehmet Oz’s nomination to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to a final confirmation vote.

The tally was 50-45 along party lines. The final confirmation vote is expected to take place at around 3:30 p.m.

After rebuking Trump’s tariffs on Canada with a bipartisan vote, Sen. Tim Kaine says he’s not done yet.

The Democrat told NBC News today that he will target any tariffs issued by Trump under his emergency powers as president and that he believes the 10% tariffs announced yesterday qualify.

Several states received notifications today that their library grants have been cancelled, according to a new statement from the American Library Association.

The news came days after all employees of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were notified that they were being put on administrative leave. Employees of DOGE had descended on the building last month after Trump signed an executive order ordering IMLS be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

AFGE Local 3403, a union representing federal employees, said the terminations were issued "seemingly at random" and blasted the federal government for notifying grantees outside of normal communication channels.

"It is unclear how grants are being terminated, and staff have not been consulted or informed about the reasoning for cuts, the ultimate size of expected cuts, or how to support grantees struggling to understand what cancelations mean," the AFGE statement said. 

"Our hearts are with the libraries, museums, educators and scholars that are suffering from the unexpected, and arbitrary loss of funding," the union added. "These programs are the heartbeat of our communities. They preserve our culture, our heritage and our values. The American people deserve better than this."

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he told Secretary of State Marco Rubio today that Trump's comments about taking control of Greenland by military force if necessary would be a violation of international law and shouldn't be done against a NATO ally.

Speaking to NBC News and Danish media in Brussels, Rasmussen said Denmark has announced $2 billion more in military spending in the Arctic and it is not Denmark’s fault that the U.S. decided to draw down its troops on its base in Greenland to a few hundred from what had previously been several thousand. 

He said he had made Denmark’s opposition to Trump's goal of taking Greenland “crystal clear” in his meeting today Rubio.

Asked by NBC News about Trump's tariffs, Rasmussen said it was bad for the global economy to start a trade war — and that he would be attending a European meeting of trade ministers Monday to come up with what he called a “proportional” response.

More than a dozen former presidents of the D.C. Bar Association have signed onto an amici curiae brief describing Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms as “an assault on the vital underpinnings of the American legal process itself” that poses an “enormous risk” to the legal system.

The group of 17 former D.C. bar presidents argued in a statement of interest in the lawsuit Perkins Coie brought against the Trump administration that allowing the president "to blackball a law firm and its clients" poses a grave danger to the rule of law.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer met with Trump in the Oval Office yesterday afternoon, in a meeting attended by Vice President JD Vance and national security adviser Mike Waltz, two sources familiar with the meeting told NBC News. 

One person also confirmed the attendance of Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

According to one of the sources, Loomer pressed Trump to fire members of his national security staff, and Waltz defended them. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes declined to comment.

Loomer confirmed the meeting in a statement to NBC News, calling it “an honor” to share with Trump her research on the staff and said “strong vetting” is needed for the sake of national security.

Read the full story here.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick predicted today that he doesn't think Trump's new sweeping tariffs on imported goods will increase prices at U.S. grocery stores.

In an interview on CNN, Lutnick was asked what he would say to Americans who voted for Trump because they were unhappy with prices at the grocery store and who are about to face even higher prices there.

"I don't think that's going to happen," said Lutnick, who added that "no one can guarantee anything."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in remarks at NATO's headquarters in Brussels today that the Trump administration supports the alliance despite recent reporting that Trump is considering policy shifts toward NATO.

"As we speak right now, the United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been. And some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is unwarranted," Rubio said in remarks during a press availability with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte before their meeting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the "strong relationship" between the U.S. and Denmark today while meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in Brussels, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

"They discussed shared priorities including increasing NATO defense spending and burden sharing, and addressing the threats to the Alliance, including those posed by Russia and China," Bruce said. "They also reviewed ongoing coordination to enhance stability and security in Europe and to secure an enduring peace in Ukraine."

The meeting and statement are notable amid friction between the U.S. and Denmark over Trump's goal of taking control of its territory of Greenland for national security purposes. Last week, Vice President JD Vance claimed without evidence that Denmark has not kept Greenland secure.

Denmark's prime minister is expected to visit Greenland today in the wake of Vance's visit and Trump's latest threats.

During the first few minutes of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of former Sen. David Perdue to be the U.S. ambassador to China, committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, joked: "David, before [Ranking Member Sen.] Jeanne [Shaheen, D-N.H.] and I lay this thing out, you sure you still want to do this?"

The comment drew some chuckles throughout the room before Perdue, who once represented Georgia in the Senate, answered, "Yes, sir."

"All right, have at it. You have five minutes to tell us why," Risch told Perdue, teeing him up to give his opening statement. 

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced a bill today to reassert Congress’s power over tariffs.

The Trade Review Act of 2025 says that a president must notify Congress about new tariffs within 48 hours of imposition. And it requires Congress to approve them within 60 days or they expire.

“For too long, Congress has delegated its clear authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce to the executive branch,” Grassley, a Trump ally who’s skeptical of tariffs, said in a statement. “Building on my previous efforts as Finance Committee Chairman, I’m joining Senator Cantwell to introduce the bipartisan Trade Review Act of 2025 to reassert Congress’s constitutional role and ensure Congress has a voice in trade policy.”

The Senate is expected to vote this afternoon on the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former surgeon and TV personality, to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

During his confirmation hearing last month, Democratic senators grilled Oz about whether he supported potential cuts to Medicaid under a plan for mandatory spending decreases in a budget resolution proposed by House Republicans. In his answers, Oz didn't commit to protecting the program from any cuts.

Oz has previously advocated for privatizing Medicare, and in his TV shows he promoted various insurers under Medicare Advantage, which provides coverage from private insurance companies.

Democrats have spent the first months of Trump’s second administration wandering the political wilderness — facing record-low popularity while competing factions battle over how exactly to take on the president.

And yet, in special election after special election so far this year, Democrats are faring miles better against Republican opponents than they did last fall in Trump’s faceoff with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

In 16 special state legislative and congressional elections held so far this year, Democrats have bettered their margin of victory or defeat compared to the 2024 Trump-Harris battle by an average of about 11.5 points, according to data collected by the political site The Downballot. The Democrat overperformed in 14 of those 16 contests, including flipping deep-red state Senate districts in Iowa and Pennsylvania.

Read the full story here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration’s new envoy to NATO are seeking to reassure wary NATO allies of the U.S. commitment to the alliance.

Rubio today decried “hysteria and hyperbole” in the media about Trump’s intentions despite persistent signals from Washington that NATO as it has existed for 75 years may no longer be relevant.

Read the full story.

Vice President JD Vance said in a new interview that the Maryland man who the Trump administration deported to El Salvador as a result of an "administrative error" was "not exactly father of the year."

Vance said in the interview that aired on Fox News that an immigration judge said in 2019 that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was "actually a member of an MS-13 gang."

"He had also committed some traffic violations," Vance said. "He had not shown up for some court dates. This is not exactly father of the year here. This is a person that we don’t think should be in our country."

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas announced today that he is running for Senate in New Hampshire to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. The race could be competitive — then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the state by just 3 percentage points in November.

“I’m running for Senate because our economy, our democracy, and our way of life are on the line, and New Hampshire deserves a Senator who is grounded in the people, places, and values of this state,” Pappas said in a statement.

He previewed his case against Republicans in an announcement video, decrying a system that is "rigged" against ordinary Americans.

"You think about the Social Security office that's gonna be closed in Littleton, drastic cuts to Medicaid, all in the name of giving big tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk," Pappas said.

The annual White House tradition of rolling Easter eggs across the South Lawn is expected to proceed this year despite concern over egg prices and strain on supply in recent months due to avian flu, a decision that’s getting mixed reviews from American egg farmers. 

“They were saying that for Easter, ‘Please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs?’ I say we don’t want to do that,” Trump said yesterday in announcing his new tariffs. The White House did not respond to a request for clarification about who was telling him not to use real eggs.

The Easter Egg Roll, scheduled for April 21, will feature 30,000 eggs for White House guests to decorate and use in games, according to the American Egg Board.

Read the full story.

Trump administration officials fanned out across morning news shows to defend the White House's new tariffs as global markets reeled from yesterday's announcement.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urged Wall Street to "trust in President Trump" and rejected the idea that Trump would pull back on tariffs before they go into effect.

"The president made it clear yesterday this is not a negotiation — this is a national emergency," she said in a CNN interview.

Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News that workers who joined Trump yesterday during the announcement "know this is a big change," adding, "but we need a big change in this country."

Democratic senators criticized what they called the “lagging” U.S. response to a devastating earthquake in Myanmar, saying the Trump administration is failing the first test of its ability to respond to a humanitarian crisis after dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers civilian foreign aid.

Scores of rescue personnel from China, India, Russia and elsewhere arrived in the Southeast Asian nation within a day or two of last Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 3,000 people in Myanmar and at least 22 in neighboring Thailand. A three-person team from USAID did not arrive in Myanmar until Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

“We are deeply concerned that the Administration’s response is failing to meet both our moral and strategic objectives — sending a signal to countries around the world that our adversaries are more reliable and trustworthy than the United States,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The signatories included Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Coons of Delaware, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

World stock markets and oil prices tumbled and investors dashed to the relative safety of bonds, gold and the yen today, as Trump’s drastic U.S. trade tariffs stirred widespread fears of a global recession.

A new baseline 10% tariff on imported goods, plus some eye-watering additional "reciprocal" tariffs on countries Trump said put high trade barriers on the U.S., left traders clearly rattled.

Read the full story.

Former Sen. David Perdue is set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today as lawmakers consider his nomination to be ambassador to China.

Perdue's testimony comes as Trump hit China and other countries with sweeping tariffs yesterday, and China warned it will enact countermeasures. The two countries have faced a tense relationship in recent years over trade, national security issues and human rights.

The former Georgia lawmaker, a Republican, previously served on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. He lost his re-election bid to Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., in a runoff race after the 2020 general election. Perdue served in the Senate from 2015 to 2021.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams will run for re-election as an independent, opting out of the Democratic primary just one day after a federal judge dismissed corruption charges against him.

“I have always put New York’s people before politics and party — and I always will. I am running for mayor in the general election because our city needs independent leadership that understands working people,” he said in a post on X this morning.

Read the full story.

Leaders from around the world reacted to Trump’s sweeping tariffs, many saying they regret the decision from the White House. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the tariffs are a “major blow to the world economy.”

If you’ve ever fixed your own car brakes, the part you bought could very well have been made by Chinese auto parts supplier Judy Zhang. 

Zhang’s company, which is based in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao and supplies brake hoses for thousands of car models in the U.S., is among those targeted by a 25% U.S. tariff on imports of automobiles, including automobile parts, that is set to take effect today.

That’s on top of a 25% tariff imposed during Trump’s first term, plus 20% tariffs he has imposed on Chinese imports since returning to office in January. Yesterday, Trump announced an additional 34% levy on Chinese imports as part of “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on countries around the world, bringing the total combined tariff on Chinese goods to at least 54%.

Though Trump insists that China, among other countries, will pay for the U.S. tariffs, Zhang and other auto parts suppliers say that the tariffs will most likely be shouldered by American consumers and that they won’t bring manufacturing in their industry back to the United States.

Read the full story here.

Dozens of progressive groups are sounding the alarm over what they’re calling an “unprecedented constitutional danger” presented by the Trump administration and Congress' attacks on the judiciary as they work to implement a unified agenda.

“We are profoundly concerned by these sweeping proposals and the actions of President Trump, his administration, and his congressional allies to intimidate the judiciary, dismantle the rule of law, and weaponize the executive branch,” more than 80 national and local organizations wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News. “The Trump administration’s authoritarian actions threaten a system of checks and balances that has safeguarded our democracy for nearly 250 years.”

The letter cites Vice President JD Vance suggesting last month that judges “aren’t allowed” to check the executive branch’s power, Trump and Elon Musk's attacks on federal judges who've ruled against the administration, and their and congressional allies' talk of potential judicial impeachments as examples of a “constitutional crisis once dismissed as hyperbole.”

“Our courts are an essential check on corporate criminals and an increasingly lawless executive branch — as well as a defense for regular people,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen and a co-chair of the Not Above the Law coalition of groups that signed the letter. “The Trump administration’s ongoing attempt to retaliate against lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals who challenge them will not be tolerated by those of us who remain committed to fighting for equal justice under the law.”

The letter calls on Congress to step up and attorneys at major law firms, some of whom are among the targets of Trump's executive orders, to speak out. It mentions three bills that it says are particularly concerning, including measures to increase the number of federal judgeships nationwide, make it easier for federal officials to move cases from state to federal courts — where a president has pardon power — and a bill that would ban judges from instituting nationwide injunctions.

If the legislative branch doesn’t come through, the letter warns, “The American public must mobilize to prevent the dismantling of co-equal branches of government.”

Public Citizen, Democracy Forward and Move On are among the signatories to the letter.

In an NBC News poll last month, 43% of registered voters said the executive branch has too much power, while 28% said the judicial branch wields too much power, and 18% said Congress has too much.