Trump’s extension of Mexico tariff deadline fuels speculation that other countries could also secure pauses
Lisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump’s extension of the deadline for a tariff deal with Mexico by another 90 days is fuelling speculation that he could announce pauses for dozens of other countries that face punitive higher import duties from tomorrow.
As the countdown continues to his deadline for a trade deal – already extended by four weeks from the original 90 days – the US president said he had made the decision to offer more time to Mexico because of the complexities of the trading relationship.
“We will be talking to Mexico over the next 90 Days with the goal of signing a Trade Deal somewhere within the 90 Day period of time, or longer,” he wrote on social media.
A little more than two weeks ago Trump threatened both the EU and Mexico with tariffs of 30% on most exports to the US, but last Sunday he concluded a deal with Brussels with a 15% baseline rate from 1 August.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “I have just concluded a telephone conversation with the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, which was very successful in that, more and more, we are getting to know and understand each other.
“The complexities of a Deal with Mexico are somewhat different than other Nations because of both the problems, and assets, of the Border.
“We have agreed to extend, for a 90 Day period, the exact same Deal as we had for the last short period of time, namely, that Mexico will continue to pay a 25% Fentanyl Tariff, 25% Tariff on Cars, and 50% Tariff on Steel, Aluminum, and Copper.”
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Palestinian statehood would be ‘rewarding Hamas’, says White House
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt notes, emphatically, that President Trump disagrees with the leaders of the UK, France, and Canada and their decision to recognise Palestinian statehood if Israel fails to agree to a ceasefire in the coming months.
“He feels as though that’s rewarding Hamas at a time where Hamas is the true impediment to a cease fire into the release of all of the hostages,” she said.
Karoline Leavitt speaks during today’s press briefing at the White House. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/APShare
Updated at 14.07 EDT
It was only yesterday that President Trump called Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri a “second-tier senator.” This comes after Hawley’s legislation that bans lawmakers, the president and vice-president from stock trading was advanced by a key committee.
Today, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirms that the president has spoken with Senator Hawley, but was evasive about his thoughts on the specifics of the legislation. “As for the mechanics of the legislation, how it will move forward, the White House continues to be in discussions with our friends on Capitol Hill,” she said.
Updated at 13.52 EDT
Leavitt clarified that the reciprocal tariffs will take effect at midnight tonight. But added she didn’t rule out any deals that could be cut before then.
“I do know foreign leaders are ringing his phone realizing this deadline is a real thing for them tomorrow when they’re bringing offers to the table,” she said.
Leavitt concludes her opening remarks by telling the press that the construction of a new White House ballroom is set to begin. It will total 90,000 square feet and hold up to 650 seats.
Leavitt adds that tomorrow Witkoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee will be traveling into Gaza to “inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food.” Leavitt adds that the officials will and meet with local Gazans to hear “first-hand about this dire situation on the ground.”
Updated at 13.53 EDT
Leavitt tells the press that Witkoff and Ambassador Hafiz had “a very productive meeting with prime minister Netanyahu and other officials today in Israel on the topic of delivering much needed food and aid to Gaza.”
ShareLeavitt kicks off White House press briefing
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has begun her briefing. She opens offering the administration’s condolences to the family of New York police officer Didarul Islam – who was killed this week in a Midtown Manhattan shooting.
Today, Mr Islam’s funeral is taking place in New York, with NYPD officers and city officials in attendance. Mayor Eric Adams delivered an address at the service.
Updated at 13.38 EDT
What was the presidential fitness test?
The presidential fitness test was once a high school staple in the US. It was first implemented by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, and required middle and high school students at American public schools to perform a number of exercises. It included a one-mile run, push-ups, and sit-ups. It was eventually replaced under President Obama in 2013 for the Presidential Youth Fitness Program. This was focused more on overall health than physical performance.
Updated at 13.25 EDT
We’re also expecting press secretary Karoline Leavitt to hold a briefing shortly. We can expect questions about Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s trip to Israel, and the looming tariff deadline.
Updated at 13.00 EDT
Trump to sign executive order reviving presidential fitness test
Later today, President Trump will sign an executive order that will reestablish the President’s council of sports, nutrition and fitness. The executive order will also reinstitute the presidential fitness test in public schools, a White House official confirms to the Guardian. The test was phased out of the school curriculum over a decade ago.
CNN first reported the details of the order.
Share‘Chaos, dishonesty and inflation’: Chuck Schumer slams Trump’s tariffs
In remarks on the Senate floor this morning, reported by NBC News, minority leader Chuck Schumer slammed the president over his latest trade deals with other countries, calling “his trade war … an experiment in chaos, dishonesty and inflation”.
He said of the new deal with South Korea:
Instead of levering a 25% tariff as he threatened, Donald Trump says South Korea will face 15% tariffs. And then he pretends like that’s some kind of victory. 15% is far from a victory, because it is American families who are ones who are going to have to pay for it in the end.
Schumer said raising prices by 15% on imported goods is “a lot of money to a lot of people”.
“Inflation continues to accelerate as Trump tariffs continue to hammer American pocketbooks,” Schumer continued.
That means Americans are paying more. Inflation goes up, the American family pays more. That’s because, in part, of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
He added:
Four months since Donald Trump’s so-called Liberation Day, his trade war has been an experiment in chaos, dishonesty and inflation.
SharePete Hegseth’s aides used polygraphs against their own Pentagon colleagues
Hugo Lowell
Senior aides to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, conducted polygraphs on their own colleagues this spring, in some cases as part of an effort to flush out anyone who leaked to the media and apparently to undercut rivals in others, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The ability of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to manage the Pentagon has been underscored by the latest revelations. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP
The polygraphs came at a time of profound upheaval in his office, as Hegseth opened a leak investigation and sought to identify the culprits by any means necessary after a series of sensitive disclosures and unflattering stories.
But the polygraphs became contentious after the aides who were targeted questioned whether they were even official, given at least one polygraph was ordered without Hegseth’s direct knowledge and sparked an intervention by a Trump adviser who does not work at the Pentagon.
The fraught episode involved Hegseth’s lawyer and part-time navy commander Tim Parlatore seeking to polygraph Patrick Weaver, a senior adviser to the secretary who was at the White House in Donald Trump’s first term and has ties to Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, the people said.
When Weaver learned of his impending polygraph, he complained to associates that he had been suspected without evidence, the people said. That led the external Trump adviser to take his complaint to Hegseth – only for Hegseth to say he did not even know about the test.
The external Trump adviser called Parlatore on his cellphone to shut down the impending polygraph, shouting down the line that in Trump’s second term, career employees did not get to question political appointees, according to two people familiar with the conversation.
Weaver does not appear to have escalated his complaint to the White House, telling associates that he preferred not to bother Miller with problems. Earlier reports suggested the White House intervened on Weaver’s behalf but the people said the White House learned of the test after it was cancelled.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment. A Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement: “The Department will not comment on an ongoing investigation.”
The extraordinary episode underscored ongoing concerns around Hegseth’s ability to manage the Pentagon – he is still facing an inspector general report into his disclosures in a Signal chat about US strikes against the Houthis – and why a Trump adviser ended up staging an intervention.
Trump posted about the hearing in my last post on his Truth Social platform earlier today, calling it “America’s big case”. He claimed:
If our Country was not able to protect itself by using TARIFFS AGAINST TARIFFS, WE WOULD BE ‘DEAD,’ WITH NO CHANCE OF SURVIVAL OR SUCCESS.
Now the tide has completely turned, and America has successfully countered this onslaught of Tariffs used against it.
ONE YEAR AGO, AMERICA WAS A DEAD COUNTRY, NOW IT IS THE “HOTTEST”COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
ShareTrump’s tariffs face skepticism from judges in federal appeals court
Ed Pilkington and Callum Jones in New York
Donald Trump’s global tariffs faced significant skepticism in a federal appeals court on Thursday, as judges investigated whether the president had overstretched his powers just hours before the latest sweeping round of duties is set to kick in.
The full 11-strong bench of the US court of appeals for the federal circuit in Washington DC is considering whether Trump exceeded his authority in imposing “reciprocal” tariffs on a large number of US trading partners.
Judges repeatedly asked if Trump was justified in relying on emergency powers to effectively tear up the US tariff schedule without consulting Congress.
Businesses challenging his strategy accused the White House of engineering a “breathtaking” attempt to force it through, unlike any trade move attempted by a US administration in two centuries.
The 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which Trump has used to invoke emergency powers and enforce many of his tariffs, “doesn’t even say ‘tariffs’”, one of the judges noted. “Doesn’t even mention them.”
In May a three-judge panel of the court of international trade blocked the import duties on grounds that Trump’s use of IEEPA was unjustified. The appeals court has stayed that ruling pending the outcome of Thursday’s hearing.
“The government uses IEEPA all the time,” Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general in the justice department’s civil division, representing the administration, told the court. He conceded, however, that it was the first IEEPA had been used to implement tariffs.
The US trade deficit has “reached a tipping point”, claimed Shumate, enabling Trump to take emergency action. “It’s affecting our military readiness,” he said. “It’s affecting our domestic manufacturing capability.”
But Neal Katyal, a lawyer representing businesses challenging the tariffs, argued that Trump was laying a “breathtaking claim to power that no president has asserted in 200 years”.
The administration is effectively saying “that our federal courts are powerless; that the president can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, for as long he wants – so long as he declares an emergency”, Katyal argued.
The challenge to Trump’s use of emergency powers has been brought by five small businesses acting alongside 12 Democratic-controlled states. They argue that the IEEPA was designed to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats arising in national emergencies, and that the reason for the tariffs do not meet that standard.
The small businesses are being represented by a libertarian public interest law firm, the Liberty Justice Center. The non-profit is supported by billionaire rightwing donors including Robert Mercer and Richard Uihlein, who, paradoxically, have also been major backers of Trump’s presidential campaigns.
Updated at 12.42 EDT
Trump’s extension of Mexico tariff deadline fuels speculation that other countries could also secure pausesLisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump’s extension of the deadline for a tariff deal with Mexico by another 90 days is fuelling speculation that he could announce pauses for dozens of other countries that face punitive higher import duties from tomorrow.
As the countdown continues to his deadline for a trade deal – already extended by four weeks from the original 90 days – the US president said he had made the decision to offer more time to Mexico because of the complexities of the trading relationship.
“We will be talking to Mexico over the next 90 Days with the goal of signing a Trade Deal somewhere within the 90 Day period of time, or longer,” he wrote on social media.
A little more than two weeks ago Trump threatened both the EU and Mexico with tariffs of 30% on most exports to the US, but last Sunday he concluded a deal with Brussels with a 15% baseline rate from 1 August.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “I have just concluded a telephone conversation with the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, which was very successful in that, more and more, we are getting to know and understand each other.
“The complexities of a Deal with Mexico are somewhat different than other Nations because of both the problems, and assets, of the Border.
“We have agreed to extend, for a 90 Day period, the exact same Deal as we had for the last short period of time, namely, that Mexico will continue to pay a 25% Fentanyl Tariff, 25% Tariff on Cars, and 50% Tariff on Steel, Aluminum, and Copper.”
Former vice-president Kamala Harris has given her first interview since last year’s election to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS tonight at 11.35pm ET.
It comes a day after she announced that she won’t run for governor of California next year. As my colleague Lauren Gambino wrote: “Harris’s decision throws open the race for California’s governorship, a post seen as a critical bulwark against Trump’s agenda.
“It also leaves open the possibility that Harris could run again for political office. She did not rule out another run for the White House, saying only that “for now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office”.
Harris also announced today that she’s set to release a memoir about her brief 2024 presidential run on 23 September.
Earlier this month, CBS owner Paramount announced it was canceling Colbert’s show amid a political firestorm, with Trump revelling in the the country’s top-rated late-night talk show host’s firing.
Former Democratic presidential nominee and vice-president Kamala Harris in Washington on 6 November 2024. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/APShare
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on X:
We had a very good call with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow and secured 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue.