Democrat governor returns to Trump’s orders to block state climate policy
In the joint statement, New York and New Mexico Democratic governors Kathy Hochul and Michel Lejean Grisham co-chaired the US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors who have pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, responding to targets targeting state powers.
The federal government cannot unilaterally strip the state’s independent constitutional authority.
We are nations, laws, and we are not blocked. We will continue to work on solutions to the climate crisis that will clean air and water, create paying jobs, grow the clean energy economy, and protect the fundamental rights of Americans to make the future healthier and safer.
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Updated with 10.28 EDT
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The White House confirmed that Donald Trump’s statement announced a 125% tariff and a 90-day suspension on China, lowering 10% tariffs in other countries.
White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt said Trump has raised tariffs on China.
She also said the US will continue to negotiate TaylorMade and its tariff levels will be reduced to a universal 10% during negotiations.
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Updated with 14.12 EDT
Trump’s budget blueprint vote will be held and passed, Mike Johnson says as he scrambles to rally holdouts before the house vote
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House vote on the Senate budget blueprint will be made as planned and ensure that GOP leaders will have enough Republican votes to ultimately pass it.
Johnson told reporters at Capitol Hill:
We believe we will – in the end we will. I think I’ll pass today.
Mike Johnson and his team are in a hurry to convince them to hold out to support the Senate budget blueprint. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Senate Republicans have designed budget resolutions to enact Trump’s domestic agenda, including expanded tax cuts to the law, oil drilling and immigration crackdowns.
But as Hill writes, “GOP critics support the House Pass version of the budget, which mandates spending cuts much more sharply than the Senate’s plans, and are seeking greater assurance that they are not thwarted by the low Senate figures later in the debate.
A resolution would only take four Republican asylum. Johnson said he has reservations (who wants to be convinced that Senate Republicans are committed to massive spending cuts) about his conservative House colleagues.
Their concerns are genuine. They really want to have real budget cuts and change the debt trajectory in which the country exists.
Sometimes there is a lack of trust in these institutions between the two rooms. But I’m trying to assure our colleagues that they are committed to this like we do, and that we can protect our essential programs and reduce unnecessary government fraud, waste, abuse and other savings, so that we can make it work for everyone.
Voting is scheduled for 5:30pm.
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14.13 Updated with EDT
To maintain a 10% baseline tariff in most countries, including Mexico and Canada, the Treasury Secretary says
Leonie Chao Fong
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent is speaking to reporters outside the White House after Donald Trump granted a 90-day suspension on tariffs in most countries and announced that China’s tariffs have risen to 125%.
Bescent said countries that did not retaliate against the US tariff announcement last week would “reward.”
“Don’t retaliate, and you will be rewarded,” he said. He noted that tariff rates on Chinese products have been raised “due to their claims about escalation.”
Mexico and Canada are included in the 10% baseline tariff, he said.
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Updated with 14.08 EDT
The WTO says trade between the US and China could fall by 80%
The World Trade Organization estimated on Wednesday that US-China trade tensions could cut trade in goods between the two economies by 80%.
“This rigorous approach between the two largest economies in the world, which accounts for around 3% of global trade, brings broader implications that could seriously undermine the global economic outlook.”
In this way, splitting the global economy into two blocks could potentially reduce long-term reductions in global real GDP by nearly 7%, the statement added.
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Updated with 13.54 EDT
Trump announces a 90-day suspension of tariffs excluding China.
Donald Trump supported tariffs in most countries for 90 days, and instead applied a 10% tariff and quickly enacted it.
In his true social platform post, Trump wrote:
I allowed a 90-day suspension and the reciprocal tariff, which had a significantly lowered 10% during this period, was soon enacted.
In a post that doesn’t mention a few days of market meltdowns, the rising fear of US inflation and the global recession arising from his tariff policies, Trump said his decision was “based on the fact that more than 75 countries have called. [his administration] …To negotiate solutions for subjects being discussed in relation to trade, trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-monetary tariffs, and these countries have not retaliated in any way in any way, in my powerful proposal.”
Trump also said it would be effective soon because of the “lack of respect China has shown to global markets” by increasing Chinese tariffs to 125%.
Based on the lack of respect China has shown to the global market, I am this raising the tariffs charged to China by the United States to 125%. At some point, hopefully, in the near future, China will realize that the era of ripping the US and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable.
It is not immediately clear whether countries other than China will face tariffs above 10%.
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Updated with 14.14 EDT
Trump White House to sue rulings restricting access to Associated Press
The Trump administration has indicated it intends to appeal the judge’s dominant termination access restrictions on the Associated Press, according to a court filing seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
The White House “sharply reduced” AP’s access to media events with Trump after renaming the Gulf of Mexico “The Gulf of America.” Photo: Reamyris/Reuters
US District Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the White House to restore full access to the Associated Press to the president’s events after being punished for the press’ decision to continue introducing the Gulf of Mexico with its compensation.
Orders from Donald Trump’s appointee McFadden require the White House to allow Associated Press journalists to access events held in the oval office, Air Force 1 and the White House.
“If the government opens doors to some journalists under the First Amendment – whether it’s an oval office, an East Room, or elsewhere, it cannot close those doors to other journalists because of their perspective,” McFadden wrote in his decision. “The Constitution needs more than that.”
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Updated with 13.30 EDT
The majority of our Senate supports Huckabee as Israeli ambassador
Reuters reports that the majority of the Senate supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to Israel’s ambassador, setting up stubborn Pro Israeli conservatives in the famous post as Israel has been furious in the war with Gaza and complicated by US tariffs.
As the vote continued, the tally was 52-44 years old and supported confirming Huckabees primarily along the party lines, with Republicans all supporting the candidate Donald Trump and almost all Democrats who opposed him.
Stable pro-Israel Mike Huckabee will become the ambassador of the US country. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstockshare
13.19 Updated with EDT
Senators will introduce conflict of interest bills aimed at Elon Musk
Nick Robbins – Airy
The democratic senators have introduced a bill that prohibits the awarding of government contracts and prohibits grants to businesses owned by special government officials.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump will speak at the Oval Office on February 11th. Photo: Kevin Lamarck/Reuters
Written by longtime Democrat New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the bill was an attempt to prevent conflicts of interest, and was created in response to the role of masks in the White House, where Donald Trump designated him as a special government employee, according to a senator’s aide. Special government officials, including many members of Musk’s so-called “Government Efficiency Ministry” (DOGE), serve as a 130-day limit and are exempt from several financial disclosure rules.
Shaheen said to the Guardian:
Those who step up to serve our country should do so as they want to contribute to the improvement of our country. This is to benefit from public services at the expense of taxpayers.
The Democrats and Ethics Watchdog Group frequently opposed Musk’s numerous conflicts as he was Doge’s de facto head and senior adviser to the president. Musk companies, particularly SpaceX and satellite communications service Starlink, have extensive and expanding relationships with government agencies with billions of dollars worth of contracts.
Musk and his team have moved rapidly in recent months to tear down the entire federal agency and cut down government services, so former government employees have warned that the world’s wealthiest people are laying the foundation for their private companies to further entrench themselves.
And beyond his contract with the government, billionaire companies such as Tesla and Neural Inc. have been involved in a wide range of regulatory battles and investigations with institutions that the Doge and the Trump administration targeted for cuts.
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Updated with 12.59 EDT
Federal judges in New York and Texas are blocking deportation of five Venezuelans
Federal judges in New York and Texas have taken legal action to block the government from deporting five Venezuelans under a law that was rarely called to grant the president the authority to imprison and deport non-citizens at war.
The five men were identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. The three are being held at a Texas facility, with two more being held at an Orange County, New York facility, according to the Associated Press.
One Texas man tests positive for HIV and may lack access to medical care if deported.
The men were identified as gang members by their physical attributes using the “Alien Enemy Verification Guide.” Agents in this Attribute Guide (ICE) tally points by relying on tattoos, hand gestures, symbols, logos, doodles and dress methods, according to the ACLU. Gang research experts tell the ACLU that this method is unreliable.
The ACLU had maintained US petitioners and had requested temporary restraining orders for judges to declare 18th century alien enemy law.
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Updated with 12.45 EDT
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warns that a US recession is increasingly likely as Donald Trump’s tariffs rattle financial markets.
Morning trading has seen stocks and bond yields rise as stock futures drop, and concerns about economic stability continue to rise.
Speaking about the Fox business, Dimon said the Dow’s 2,000-point drop “feeds itself,” prompting people to feel a 401(k) and pension crisis, prompting them to cut.
Dimon said at Maria Shaw on the morning of Fox Business:
I think it’s probably [a recession is] Because when the market sees a 2,000 point decline, I have a market. [in the Dow Jones industrial average]it gives a feed to itself, right?
“It makes you feel like you’re losing money on your 401(k), you’re losing money on your pension. You have to cut back,” he added.
As the trade war shows no signs of easing, fears of a recession are rising on Wall Street as the recession deepens.
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Updated with 12.17 EDT
