President Donald Trump launched a trade war Tuesday against America's three biggest trading partners, drawing immediate retaliation from Mexico, Canada and China and sending financial markets into a tailspin.
Also, Trump will stand before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to give an accounting of his turbulent first weeks in office as a divided nation struggles to keep pace, with some Americans fearing for the country's future while others are cheering him on.
Here's the latest:
Trump’s order pausing aid to Ukraine includes military assistance and weapons that had already been approved and were en route to the country, according to a defense official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations, said that it’s not clear what weapons that includes or how much aid was stopped even as it was en route to Kyiv.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. had used two major ways to provide security assistance to Kyiv: presidential drawdown authority, which takes weapons and supplies from Pentagon stockpiles and sends them quickly to the warfront, and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which uses longer-term contracts to send weapons.
The official said that some weapons approved by the Biden administration in recent months that were being provided through the drawdown authority were affected by Trump’s pause.
But no details are available. As an example, a $500 million aid package was approved in January, before Biden left office. It included missiles for air defense, ammunition bridging systems and other equipment. Officials did not know how much of that aid had already arrived in Ukraine.
It’s also unclear whether Trump’s order has any impact on any of the contracts that were authorized or finalized under USAI during the Biden administration.
—Lolita C. Baldor
The Egypt plan, approved by Arab leaders at a summit in Cairo on Tuesday, would allow Palestinians to remain in the territory during a post-war reconstruction unlike Trump’s plan that calls for depopulating the strip and redeveloping it as a beach destination.
National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said Trump “stands by his bold vision for a post-war Gaza” but also “welcomes input from our Arab partners in the region.”
“It’s clear his proposals have driven the region to come to the table rather than allow this issue to devolve into further crisis,” Hughes added.
Arab leaders approved the Egyptian proposed $53 billion plan to rebuild Gaza by 2030 as the continuation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is uncertain.
Israel’s leaders have welcomed Trump’s proposal, which Human Rights Watch and others have said would amount to “ethnic cleansing,” the forcible displacement of the civilian population of a national group from a geographic area.
Idaho has a strict ban on the procedure, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
The Justice Department outlined its plans to move for dismissal of the lawsuit originally filed by the Biden administration, according to the court papers filed by St. Luke’s Health System, the state’s largest hospital network.
Dropping the case would represent a dramatic reversal from the previous administration, in a state with one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws.
St. Luke’s is seeking a court order allowing doctors to continue providing abortions in emergency situations as they deem necessary. The hospital has previously said Idaho’s abortion ban required pregnant women to be flown out of state for emergency care.
A Justice Department spokesperson and Idaho officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
▶ Read more about the emergency abortion lawsuit
NBC’s Lester Holt and ABC’s David Muir were among those seen on the White House campus ahead of the session. It’s a decades-long tradition by presidents as they seek to shape news coverage of their annual addresses to the country.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters at the Capitol that Trump was “incapable of being straight with the American people about the mess he’s created in his short time in office.”
Democrats are spotlighting the people who’ve been affected by the way the Trump administration has tried to dismantle parts of the federal government in the weeks since Trump took office. They’re also slamming Trump for the economic effects of the president’s tariff plans.
In the aftermath of their election losses, Democrats had struggled to coalesce around a plan to counter Trump. But as the impact of his early actions becomes clear, congressional Democrats have become enlivened in their responses.
“I get that people wanted change,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. “I get that they wanted someone to shake things up, to work on bringing health care costs down and doing something about housing, but they didn’t want this.”
Peter Marocco, the Trump administration official who’s been leading the dismantling of USAID, is expected to brief members of Congress on Wednesday about the president’s reorganization of U.S. foreign aid, according to a person familiar with the plan.
Marocco will come face-to-face with Republicans and Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the first time since the administration issued wide-ranging cuts that would effectively eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.
Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers have since called for saving a number of widely successful USAID programs credited with containing outbreaks of Ebola and saving more than 20 million lives in Africa through HIV and AIDS treatment.
The latest actions by the Trump administration have reflected a stark departure from decades of U.S. policy that foreign aid helps U.S. interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.
— Farnoush Amiri
John Thune says trade is important to his home state of South Dakota, but he’s ready to give Trump’s tariffs a chance.
“What I’m willing to do is give the president some latitude to try and accomplish the objective he seeks to get done here,” Thune said about the administration’s goal of reducing the flow of fentanyl at the borders.
The Republican leader acknowledged he’s in a “different place on tariffs” than some of his colleagues and even the White House. “But at the end of the day, it’s really about, trying to achieve the desired result.”
“I think it’s a part of a negotiation,” John Thune said at the Capitol.
“And I’m hopeful that in the end, we’ll get folks to the table and be able to negotiate a deal that will bring a peaceful resolution to this three-years-long conflict and, and one, hopefully they’ll respect the sovereignty of Ukrainian people and make the world more safe,” he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that the state had requested the agency's assistance in investigating and controlling an outbreak that emerged in January.
Federal health officials have limited statutory authority to open disease investigations. As a policy, the CDC dispatches investigators only after state or local health authorities ask them in.
The outbreak has sickened more than 140 people, including a school-age child who died.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are introducing a pair of resolutions demanding the Trump administration turn over documents and information about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest and the firings of federal workers, the AP has learned.
It’s the most aggressive move yet by Democrats trying to confront Trump’s actions.
The resolutions of inquiry would launch investigations into the Trump administration and Musk through the Oversight panel. If the Republican-led committee fails to act, which is likely, the Democrats could push the resolutions to a House floor vote in a matter of weeks.
▶Read more about the DOGE firings.
Many products are flowing from China to the United States under a tariff exception called the de-minimis clause, which allows small packages valued under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, introduced a bill Tuesday to end the exception for packages from China, a move she said would help “level the playing field for American workers, keep families safe from fentanyl, and prevent other dangerous products from entering our communities undetected.”
Trump last month ended the exception only to restore it a few days later, apparently to allow more time for the federal government to sort out how to collect tariffs on the millions of such shipments that come through the U.S. border every day.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon is urging her agency's employees to cut administrative bloat.
In a Monday memo after being confirmed by the Senate, McMahon said she plans to fulfill President Donald Trump's promise to slash red tape at the Education Department and return its power to states.
She described her task as “accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education — a momentous final mission — quickly and responsibly.”
It will “profoundly impact” budgets and staff at the department, McMahon said, adding that all workers “should be enthusiastic about any change that will benefit students.”
Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, and his administration has moved to cut dozens of contracts and fire or suspend more than 100 workers.
Emmanuel Macron’s office confirmed the successive phone calls on Tuesday.
Macron “welcomes” Zelenskyy’s “willingness to re-engage in dialogue with the U.S.” and “reiterates France’s determination to work with all the parties to achieve a solid and lasting peace in Ukraine,” his office said.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday the Oval Office blowup with Trump last week was “regrettable,” adding that he stands ready to work under Trump’s “strong leadership” to get a lasting peace.
No details were disclosed about the discussion with Trump.
Andrzej Duda said in a farewell address to the U.N. General Assembly that he has promoted closer relations with the United States during his nearly 10 years in office and recently in talks with President Donald Trump.
He says that if not for the initiatives bolstering the Polish-American alliance and European security against “resurging Russian imperialism,” the Kremlin could have conquered Ukraine’s capital long ago and set its sights on Warsaw and the Baltic states.
Duda says Poland was one of the first countries to support neighboring Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022 against Moscow’s “blatant and brutal violation of international law.”
Duda, who cannot run for a third term in elections in May, says Poland has continuously supported Ukraine “which is defending itself against Russia’s neo-colonial ambitions.”
On Tuesday, in response to questions from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, and other Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Elbridge Colby said a nuclear-armed Iran “would pose an existential threat” to the U.S. and that “we should deny Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
He downplayed his previous comments over the years on Iran, saying, “was my wording always appropriate? Was my precise framing always perfect? No.”
Vice President JD Vance made a quick stop at the committee hearing to urge Colby’s confirmation, saying the nominee has said things in the past that alienated Republicans and Democrats and also said things that both sides would agree on.
Marco Rubio told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it’s a “top priority” for the Trump administration amid uncertainty over the future of a ceasefire in Gaza.
The State Department said Tuesday that Rubio had spoken with Netanyahu to thank him for cooperating with Trump administration’s proposal for an extension of the ceasefire with Hamas that expired on Saturday. It also said Rubio told Netanyahu that “he anticipates close coordination in addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for a stable region.”
The call came after an announcement by Rubio on Saturday that he had signed off on emergency determinations to expedite military assistance, including 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs, to Israel without congressional review. The actual approvals were done on Friday.
Trump’s nominee for the top policy job at the Pentagon told senators after persistent questioning that Russia presents a significant military threat to Europe and the U.S. homeland and that Moscow’s forces did invade Ukraine.
On multiple occasions Tuesday, Elbridge Colby declined to answer directly whether Russia invaded Ukraine, saying it’s a sensitive topic and he didn’t want to say anything that might hurt the chances for peace.
In only one instance — when Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, pressed him, asking, “In February 2022, did Russian forces cross the border and invade Ukraine? Yes or no?” — he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that she was “describing a factual reality” that is “demonstrably true.”
When asked about Trump's decision Monday to pause military aid to Kyiv, Colby said the president has a plan to end the war and ensure a secure and sovereign Ukraine.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he would bring two such constituents.
Alissa Ellman, is a disabled Army veteran diagnosed with a rare cancer associated with burn pit exposure. She was fired from her job in Buffalo helping fellow veterans obtain benefits.
Tiffany Ramos was fired from her job in Syracuse helping farms and rural businesses get financial support.
They demonstrate “the real and devastating human impact of Trump’s cruel and shortsighted policies and the destructive cuts,” Schumer said.
A few former park rangers will be in the audience as well as former VA workers.
Rep. Eric Sorensen of Illinois invited James Diaz, a disabled veteran who worked as a fuel compliance officer at the IRS.
Asked about a potential visit by Musk on Wednesday, Johnson said he was “coming to give everyone an update.”
“The closer we coordinate with what DOGE is doing and with the House, the better off the country is because we’ll be able again to make these big savings from fraud, waste and abuse permanent in the budgeting process,” Johnson said.
Among them, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., said: “Donald Trump and Elon Musk are destroying the state of the union. I don’t need to be there to watch him claim otherwise.”
Two lawmakers representing districts in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia also won’t be there. Rep. Gerry Connolly said he’s never missed the address before, but the chaos unleashed on his constituents demands more. Meanwhile, Rep. Don Beyer, said he’d be rallying this week with federal workers and contractors.
“I will choose our community over President Donald Trump every single day,” Beyer said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. tweeted “I’ll start attending when he starts following the law.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, also says she won’t be attending.
“Instead, I’m meeting with constituents who have been harmed by this administration’s reckless firings and its illegal and ongoing funding freeze across government,” Murry said.
Mike Johnson is encouraging Republicans to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying the Trump administration's slashing of federal government.
The GOP speaker is echoing the president’s claims that the demonstrations are fueled by professional protesters.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Johnson said at a press conference.
Republicans are finding themselves at a loss to explain the DOGE cuts that are leaving federal workers suddenly out of jobs from coast to coast.
It’s all reminiscent of Trump’s first term when Democrats badgered Republicans for trying to do away with the Affordable Care Act -- and ended up winning back control of the House in the midterm elections.
The Canadian prime minister says the country’s tariffs will be rolled out over the course of 21 days.
“Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend,” he said. “At the same, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying murderous dictator. Make that make sense.”
Read more about the tariffs.
Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general in Trump’s first term, was speaking Tuesday to lawmakers at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination.
Whitaker spoke more positively of NATO than have Trump and ally Elon Musk, who’ve questioned the value of the alliance to the U.S.
Whitaker told senators a big part of his job would be ensuring each NATO ally reaches Trump’s call to invest the equivalent of at least 5% of its gross domestic product in their militaries.
“I have no concern that our European allies and Canada can do more and want to do more,” Whitaker said. “I fully expect they will do what’s necessary to continue to make NATO the strongest alliance ever in the history of the planet.”
The move is meant as a show of support for Ukraine.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat., urged colleagues during a closed-door meeting to join the effort. The move comes one day after President Donald Trump directed a pause in Ukraine assistance and after last week’s disastrous White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, who was wearing a blue and yellow tie, accused Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance of “bullying a statesman last week on behalf of a thug.”
“I think we need to make a full show of support for Ukraine tonight,” Doggett said.
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend aid to Ukraine will imperil lives and worsen Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said Tuesday that military assistance for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders has always had bipartisan support. Warner said Trump’s decision will weaken Ukraine and undercut its position in any peace talks.
Warner has been a staunch supporter of intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Ukraine, a relationship that will be tested by Trump’s new posture. Intelligence officials didn’t respond Tuesday to questions about the status of the relationship.
“I call on President Trump to reverse this short-sighted decision, which weakens the United States’ credibility on the global stage,” Warner said.
The move comes after President Donald Trump alleged Chinese interference with the operations of the critical shipping lane.
In a filing, CK Hutchison Holding said it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and all shares in Hutchison Port Group Holdings.
The two units hold 80% in the Hutchison Ports group that operates 43 ports in 23 countries.
The consortium, comprised of BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited, will acquire 90% interests in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal in Panama, according to the filing.
Mike Johnson says he won’t be ripping up Trump’s speech, the way then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did from the dais during the president’s first term.
In fact, Johnson said, he’d like “to frame it in gilded gold.”
The Republican speaker said he’s excited about the speech. “There really is so much to celebrate,” he said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is telling colleagues it’s “important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence” for Trump’s speech.
“The House as an institution belongs to the American people,” Jeffries wrote in a letter to colleagues, “and as their representatives we will not be run off the block or bullied.”
Still, some Democrats are simply declining.
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, a state hit hard by the federal firings, said he has never missed a speech but that the challenges demand “more than sitting in a chamber” listening as if Trump was not “unleashing
chaos and cruelty on their lives.”
“These are not normal times,” Connolly said.
Thousands of federal workers attending the National Treasury Employees Union Legislative Conference in Washington focused their annual meeting on the impact of Department of Government Efficiency cuts to the federal workforce and attempts to shut down agencies.
NTEU President Doreen Greenwald told attendees “to keep the pressure on” members of Congress by contacting their offices repeatedly.
NTEU has filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration over mass layoffs of probationary workers and agency closures.
“The actions of this administration are causing chaos,” Greenwald said.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, told the audience, “DOGE is not about efficiency, its about making it efficient to destroy the government. And when you break the government, people die.”
The State Department has reinstated the designation for Yemen’s Iran-backed group.
It fulfills an order announced by Trump shortly after he took office in January.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday that the designation, which carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing “material support” for the group, had been restored.
Trump’s first administration had similarly designated the Houthis in its waning days, but that had been revoked by the Biden administration over concerns it would badly affect the delivery of aid to Yemen, which was then considered to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The Education Department and Health and Human Services are considering orders to stop work on $51 million in contracts with Columbia, the agencies said Monday. They’re also reviewing $5 billion in federal grants.
Trump said on social media that federal funding will be stopped for schools or colleges that allow “illegal protests,” and that agitators “will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”
A statement from Columbia said it’s working with the administration to fight antisemitism.
The New York City campus has been roiled by protests over the Israel-Hamas War. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia has failed to protect Jewish students and questioned whether it’s fit to do business with the government.
Allyson and Lauren Phillips of Woodstock, Georgia, are the mother and sister of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was killed while jogging. Federal authorities have said a Venezuelan man who was sentenced to life in prison for her killing had entered the U.S. illegally. President Trump recently signed a bill into law named after Riley.
Prosecutors in Texas are seeking the death penalty against two Venezuelan men who are accused of killing Alexis Nungaray’s 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, after they had entered the U.S. illegally.
Stocks are falling again on Wall Street as companies and investors react to President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on the U.S.’s biggest trading partners.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% Tuesday morning, the Nasdaq fell 0.6% and the Dow slid 423 points, or 1%.
The burgeoning trade war between the U.S., China, Canada and Mexico is helping to extend a recent slump for U.S. stocks that was prompted by signs of weakness in the economy. Shares of Target and Best Buy fell after the retailers warned of higher prices for consumers due to tariffs.
Markets in Europe fell sharply while stocks in Asia saw more modest declines.
▶ Read more about the tariffs' effects on financial markets
Also sitting with Melania Trump will be Stephanie Diller. She’s the widow of New York police officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed in the line of duty during a Queens traffic stop in March 2024. Donald Trump attended Diller’s wake.
Marc Fogel is the American history teacher who returned home last month after years of wrongful detention in Russia. His 95-year-old mother, Malphine, will join him.
The family of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed during the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, are also guests.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday she’ll announce the products Mexico will target Sunday in a public event in Mexico City’s central plaza, perhaps indicating Mexico still hopes to de-escalate the trade war set off by President Trump.
“There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” Sheinbaum said.
▶ Read more about Mexico's retaliatory tariffs