Donald Trump ramped up the U.S. trade war with Canada and threatened blanket tariffs on other countries. The president is set to visit Texas a week after deadly floods in the state. And how an NBC News report on liver damage helped a viewer recognize her own illness. Here’s what to know today.
Trump said he’s ready to impose blanket tariffs and send more weapons to Ukraine in exclusive interview
President Donald Trump’s tariff fight moved forward yesterday as he escalated the U.S. trade war with Canada and said in an exclusive interview that he plans to impose blanket tariffs on most trade partners.
In a letter he shared to Truth Social, Trump said he would apply a 35% tariff to all imports from Canada and accused the country of retaliating “instead of working with” the U.S. to come to a deal. Until this escalation, Canadian imports that did not fall under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which Trump negotiated in his first term, faced a tariff of 25%. Energy imports from Canada faced tariffs of 10%.
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And in an exclusive interview yesterday with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, Trump said he plans to impose 15% to 20% tariffs on most trade partners. He dismissed concerns that further tariffs could negatively affect the stock market or drive inflation. “I think the tariffs have been very well-received,” Trump added.
So far this week, Trump has publicized letters to 22 countries, not counting Canada, establishing tariff rates. The steepest rate is 50% on Brazilian imports. He also announced a 50% tariff on copper imports. Trump said the European Union would also be receiving a letter.
In the wide-ranging conversation, Trump also addressed the status of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump, who has expressed frustration toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, again echoed that sentiment and said he would have “a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” though he didn’t elaborate. Trump also spoke about what he said was a new deal between the U.S. and NATO to send more weapons to Ukraine from the U.S. — “and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%.”
Less than a week after signing his “big, beautiful bill” into law, Trump said he would travel “a little bit” to sell the massive domestic policy package to voters. “But honestly,” he said, “it’s been received so well I don’t think I have to.”
Read the full story here.
More politics news:
- A federal judge blocked Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship and granted the case class-action status after the Supreme Court last month limited judges’ abilities to block orders nationwide.
- Trump nominated Nick Adams, a right-wing influencer known for his bombastic “alpha male” posts, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Malaysia.
- A surprise vote barring the Trump administration from moving the FBI’s headquarters to a new location in Washington, D.C., brought the Senate appropriations process to a halt — a setback for lawmakers working to avert a government shutdown at the end of September.
- Dismissal notices for hundreds of U.S. diplomats in Washington could hit inboxes as soon as today after the Supreme Court ruled this week that Trump’s plans to overhaul the State Department could move forward.
- Democratic governors in at least five states are considering special sessions and more are under pressure to convene them in response to the expected financial fallout from Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
- Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton said she has filed for divorce from state Attorney General Ken Paxton “on biblical grounds” and “in light of recent discoveries.”
U.S. sees four 1-in-1,000-year floods in less than a week
President Donald Trump is set to visit Kerrville, Texas, with first lady Melania Trump today to meet with first responders and review damage from the deadly flooding that hit the region last weekend. At least 120 people have died and more than 170 people are missing, though search-and-rescue efforts have shifted to a recovery phase, officials said.
In his phone call with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, Trump praised the response to the flood, saying “everyone’s doing a great job.” But, he said, “I would imagine you’d put alarms up in some form.” Trump’s administration has faced backlash from local, state and federal officials who argued that job cuts to the National Weather Service and NOAA, along with plans to shutter FEMA, worsened the storm’s impact.
The floods in Texas were remarkable, with water levels along the Guadalupe surging to almost 30 feet in Hunt on July 4. However, the disaster was just one of at least four 1-in-1,000-year rainfall events across the U.S. to happen over the course of a week.
Last Sunday, Tropical Storm Chantal caused extensive flooding across the central portion of North Carolina. In New Mexico on Tuesday, at least three people were killed by devastating flash floods that swept through the village of Ruidoso. That same day in Chicago, 5 inches of rain fell in only 90 minutes over Garfield Park, prompting multiple rescues on the west side of the city.
A 1-in-1,000-year flood refers to the 0.1% probability that your location will experience such an intense flood, one expert explained. But that doesn’t mean a few of those events won’t happen every year, and climate change is also likely to make them more common. Read the full story here.
Trump admin escalates efforts to restrict gender-affirming care
The Justice Department said it has sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in “performing transgender medical procedures on children.” In its announcement Wednesday, the DOJ did not specify what it considers “transgender medical procedures” but said its investigations “include healthcare fraud, false statements, and more.”
The announcement came the same day that the Federal Trade Commission held an all-day workshop on the “dangers of gender-affirming care.” The event featured more than a dozen speakers, including people who said they received care as minors and now regret it, doctors and psychologists, and political scientists and lawyers. All of them criticized transgender health care, and many said there is no evidence to support transition care as a treatment for gender dysphoria.
Meanwhile, activists and some employees from within the FTC criticized the workshop, expressing concerns about overreach by the commission and the potential breach of confidential doctor-patient consultations. Read the full story here.
Read All About It
- Israel believes that at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was buried by U.S. strikes, a senior Israeli government official said, adding that if Israel suspects Iran is trying to dig up the material, it will not hesitate to strike again.
- Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist who was detained for months, filed a claim for $20 million in damages against the Trump administration. Khalil said he would also accept an apology.
- At least 25 people were taken to the hospital after an apparent mass overdose event in Baltimore.
- Two new K-pop groups are taking over the music charts — and they’ve never even performed live.
- Amanda Anisimova will compete for the women’s Grand Slam title at Wimbledon tomorrow, an improbable accomplishment in itself because she temporarily left the sport two years ago.
Staff Pick: An NBC News report helped her recognize liver damage
A report published last year found that 15 million Americans take a certain type of supplement that could be damaging to their liver. Some of the top liver researchers in the U.S. told us that as more people take herbal and dietary supplements, doctors have been treating more cases of liver damage associated with them.
Our first segment on “Nightly News” in May featured an otherwise healthy 54-year-old man who experienced liver damage linked to high doses of turmeric he was taking. That’s what got Katie Mohan’s attention.
Mohan had recently started taking daily turmeric pills and realized she had the same symptoms of stomach pain, nausea and fatigue. Her skin had also turned yellow, a hallmark sign of liver damage. She immediately sought medical help — and, it turns out, just in time. “Katie actually was one step before full liver damage, liver failure, requiring liver transplant,” her doctor said. Mohan then reached out to NBC News to let us know what happened, and we shared her experience in a follow-up story. — Marina Kopf, associate producer
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
It is the final day of Amazon’s four-day mega sale, so if you have something sitting in your cart, you’ll want to act fast. Also, check out the best deals under $50 and see which deals are at their lowest price ever. The NBC Select team also gathered a list of what you should buy before tariffs affect prices.
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