Majority in US House votes to end Trump’s tariffs on Canada
The US House just passed a joint resolution terminating the national emergency declared by Donald Trump to impose tariffs on imports from Canada.
Six Republicans joined almost all Democrats to pass the measure by a vote of 219-211 in the narrowly divided House.
The rebuke is likely symbolic, since it would take a two-thirds majority of both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto, and Trump left no doubt about his unwavering support for tariffs in a blistering social media post as the votes were cast.
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” Trump warned just two minutes before enough Republicans voted for the resolution to form a majority.
Polling shows that the tariffs are unpopular with a majority of Americans, including business owners who traditionally support Republicans.
The supreme court is expected to rule soon on the Trump administration’s effort to get lower court rulings, which found that the president does not have the power to impose tariffs, overturned.
Key events
House Democrat investigates Trump’s sudden reversal on US-Canada bridge after reported lobbying by Republican donor
Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House oversight committee, wrote to the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday to demand information about his reported role in turning Donald Trump against a new, publicly owned bridge connecting the US and Canada after he met a billionaire Republican donor who owns a rival bridge
In his letter, Garcia cited reporting from the New York Times that Trump’s sudden threat on Monday to block the opening of the new bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan came after a call from Lutnick, who had just met with Matthew Moroun, the owner of the private Ambassador Bridge between the two cities, who has donated more than $600,000 to Trump and the Republican party.
“It appears that you have chosen to protect a politically connected billionaire donor family at the expense of promoting American commerce,” Garcia wrote to Lutnick.
“Your interference could increase traffic congestion, reduce economic opportunity, and damage trade between the United States and Canada. As such, I request information regarding any communications and undue influence the Moroun family may have had with the Trump Administration.”
Garcia asked Lutnick to turn over documents including all communications related to his meeting with Moroun on Monday and his discussions with Trump or anyone else in the White House related to the new bridge and the old bridge.
“The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which President Trump once touted as a ‘vital economic link between our two countries,’ has been under construction for years,” Garcia noted. “The Moroun family’s latest attempt to delay or block the opening of the bridge by directly appealing to you and to the Trump Administration appears to have proven successful.”
US House passes bill to require voter ID and limit vote by mail
The narrowly divided US House passed the Republican-sponsored Save America Act on Wednesday, which would required proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID at the polls, imposing a barrier to voting that, research shows, more than 9% of US citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have readily available.
All but one of the Republicans in Congress voted for the measure, and all but one of the Democrats voted against it.
The legislation is not guaranteed to pass the Senate.
Henry Cuellar, a conservative Texas congressman who was recently given clemency by Donald Trump, was the only Democrat to vote for the bill.
Majority in US House votes to end Trump’s tariffs on Canada
The US House just passed a joint resolution terminating the national emergency declared by Donald Trump to impose tariffs on imports from Canada.
Six Republicans joined almost all Democrats to pass the measure by a vote of 219-211 in the narrowly divided House.
The rebuke is likely symbolic, since it would take a two-thirds majority of both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto, and Trump left no doubt about his unwavering support for tariffs in a blistering social media post as the votes were cast.
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” Trump warned just two minutes before enough Republicans voted for the resolution to form a majority.
Polling shows that the tariffs are unpopular with a majority of Americans, including business owners who traditionally support Republicans.
The supreme court is expected to rule soon on the Trump administration’s effort to get lower court rulings, which found that the president does not have the power to impose tariffs, overturned.
Dharna Noor
Climate leaders gathered outside the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters on Wednesday to condemn the Trump administration’s plans to repeal the legal finding underpinning all federal climate regulations.
“This is corruption, plain and simple. Old fashioned, dirty political corruption,” said the Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse at the rally. “This is an agency that has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of the fossil fuel polluters.”
The rollback of the 2009 endangerment finding will be finalized by Donald Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters yesterday. The seminal ruling established a legal basis to regulate planet-warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.
The move comes a year and a half after Trump on the campaign trail directly requested $1bn from oil bosses, promising he would scrap environmental rules if elected.
“[Zeldin] is saying to the fossil fuel industry, you now are gonna get what you paid for,” said the Massachusetts senator Ed Markey at the gathering. “This is cash and carry: You give us the cash, and then we carry away all of the environmental protections.”
At the event, environmental non-profits including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club pledged to file litigation over the forthcoming rollback.
“We’re gonna be taking this fight to the courts, and we are going to win,” said Manish Bapna, president of the national environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
The plan to kill the endangerment finding is “terrifying”, said Talia Brandt, a 10-year old Maryland resident and member of environmental health organization Moms Clean Air Force, who appeared at the rally with her mother, Liz.
“We shouldn’t have to be here fighting for our future,” she said.
Border chief Greg Bovino emailed agent who shot Chicago woman five times to praise him
Evidence made public on Wednesday showed that Gregory Bovino, a border patrol chief who was the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts until last month, praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman during an immigration crackdown last year.
Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, was shot five times by a border patrol agent in October while in her vehicle. She was charged with felony assault after homeland security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. But the case was abruptly dismissed after video evidence showed that the agent who shot her had first steered his vehicle into Martinez’s car.
The new evidence – which includes emails, text messages and videos – was released this week after a US district judge, Georgia Alexakis, lifted a protective order. Federal prosecutors had argued the documents could “further sully” Exum’s reputation.
“I don’t know why the United States government has expressed zero concern for the sullying of Ms Martinez’s reputation,” Alexakis countered.
The border patrol agent who shot Martinez, Charles Exum, was not wearing his body camera during the incident, according to Martinez’s lawyer, but body camera video recorded by another agent and released on Tuesday showed the moments that led up to the shooting from inside Exum’s vehicle.
“It’s time to get aggressive and get the [expletive] out,” one agent could be heard saying.
After Exum gets out of the car, the sound of five shots being fired can be heard on the video.
Emails and text messages to Exum included one message from Bovino sending encouragement to Exum after the shooting.
“In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!!” Bovino wrote to Exum on 4 October, hours after Martinez was shot, in an email urging him to put off his retirement.
Another text exchange highlighted by lawyers for Martinez showed that when a fellow agent asked Exum if his superiors were being “supportive” after the shooting, Exum replied: “Big time. Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself … according to Bovino.”
On the day Martinez was shot, she had followed a border patrol vehicle and honked her horn to warn others of the presence of immigration agents. Body camera footage showed agents with weapons drawn and rushing out of the vehicle.
Lawyers for Martinez pushed to make evidence in the dismissed criminal case public, saying they were especially motivated to do so after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis under similar circumstances.
In one group text, other agents congratulated Exum as Bovino had, calling him a “legend” and offering to buy him beers.
In another text exchange, first made public when Martinez testified in Congress last week, another agent sent Exum a Guardian report on the shooting in which her lawyer said she had “seven holes in her body from five shots”.
“Read it,” Exum replied. “5 shots, 7 holes”.
Exum then appeared to brag to colleagues about his shooting skills. “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys,” he wrote.
Bovino’s belligerent persona, in frequent Fox News appearances, on social media and while leading operations in front of cameras deployed to produce propaganda for the Trump administration, had earned him a starring role in the made-for-TV crackdown until last month, when he was caught lying about Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis despite posing no threat.
The shooting of Martinez came during the height of the Chicago-area crackdown last year, during which a federal judge concluded that Bovino had lied to her about having been struck by a rock during a confrontation with protesters in the city.
The government unsuccessfully fought the release of the documents on the shooting, including an email from Bovino, who led enforcement operations nationwide until video evidence showed that he had lied when he said Pretti “approached law enforcement with a weapon”, “violently resisted” and wanted to “massacre law enforcement”.
Martinez’s lawyer are pursuing a complaint under a law that permits individuals to sue federal agencies. They outlined instances of DHS lying about Martinez after the shooting, including labeling her a “domestic terrorist” and accusing her of having a history of “doxxing federal agents”. The Montessori school assistant has no criminal record and prosecutors haven’t brought evidence in either claim.
“This is a time where we just cannot trust the words of our federal officials,” attorney Christopher Parente said at a news conference where his office released evidence.
That included an agent’s hand-drawn diagram of the scene to allege how Martinez “boxed in” federal agents. It included three vehicles Parente said “don’t exist”.
Many of the emails, text messages and videos were released on Tuesday night by the US attorney’s office.
Last week, Martinez offered emotional testimony about her ordeal to Democrats in Congress in which she described her shock at being described as terrorist based on the false account of the incident offered by federal agents.
Martinez recalled:
The news in the jail that evening had my story and I was being called a ‘domestic terrorist’! They said I ‘rammed’ federal agents. I was in shock. If they only knew I was just months away from paying off my car and I would never intentionally damage my vehicle much less be crazy enough to hit a law enforcement vehicle. On Friday I was teaching the young children at the Montessori school and we were singing and dancing and getting ready for spooky season preparing fall activities to do the following week and on Saturday my own government was calling me a ‘domestic terrorist’ and I was in a federal detention center with bullet holes all over my body.
Pam Bondi has left a House judiciary committee hearing after more than five hours.
During the hearing, Bondi answered questions from lawmakers about the Epstein files and the justice department’s ongoing prosecution of anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota. She shook hands with Republican legislators before leaving the hearing room.
All of the survivors currently attending the House judiciary committee hearing on the Epstein files raised their hands when congressman Dan Goldman asked if they had tried to speak with the justice department but not received a response.
Goldman criticized attorney general Pam Bondi’s justice department, pointing to a list of victims’ names that had been released in the files, which Congress ordered redacted for survivors’ privacy. “That is clearly intentional to intimidate these survivors and victims,” he said.
Donald Trump’s White House meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, concluded after nearly three hours.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” Trump said in a social media post. “Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them. Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”
Netanyahu did not provide a statement on the meeting.
The brief closure of airspace over El Paso, Texas, this morning can be attributed to a dispute between the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration officials over the testing of anti-drone lasers, the Associated Press reports.
The Department of Defense intended to test the new system on an incursion of drones from Mexican cartels, but FAA officials were concerned about threats to commercial air safety, unnamed sources told the AP.
Despite a meeting scheduled later this month to discuss the issue, the Pentagon wanted to go ahead and test it, prompting the FAA to shutter the airspace. It was not clear whether the laser was ultimately deployed.
The US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said earlier that a response to an incursion by Mexican cartel drones had led to the airspace closure and that the threat had been neutralized. Drone incursions are not uncommon along the southern border.
The FAA’s notice initially closed airspace above the city for 10 days, which would have crippled transportation and logistics for the border city. The nearest major alternative airport for El Paso is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a four-hour drive west of El Paso.
Dharna Noor
On Wednesday, the president reportedly plans to sign an executive order directing the defense department to procure more power from coal, the most planet-warming fossil fuel.
“Clean, beautiful coal is not only keeping the lights on in our country but also driving down the cost of electricity across the country as well,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters yesterday.
On the same day, the president is set to be awarded the inaugural “Undisputed Champion of Coal” title from the Washington Coal Club – a DC-based pro-coal industry organization – for his efforts to roll back federal climate regulations.
The coal industry poured $3.5m into efforts to elect Trump in 2024. Reports show the president’s efforts to keep ageing coal plants offer could push up already-soaring energy bills nationwide.
“Trump gets showered with millions in campaign donations and absurd awards, billionaire coal barons get the EPA gutted and a license to pollute, and working people get stuck with skyrocketing utility bills,” said Jesse Lee, senior adviser to the green non-profit Climate Power.
Minneapolis mayor says city won’t change immigration policies despite ‘positive’ meeting with Trump ‘border czar’
Rachel Leingang
Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said he has met with Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, who took over the Minnesota immigration surge, and that the meetings have been “positive”. But, he said, the city would not be changing its policies to meet the administration’s demands.
“We’re not changing those things locally,” he told the Guardian. “We’ve got a separation ordinance. We’re a welcoming city. We’re gonna stay that way.”
Frey said he’s hopeful that there will be a drawdown in agents on the ground, mirroring comments made by the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, this week. Homan said last week that about 700 agents would depart the state, but that leaves about 2,000 still on the ground, compared with about 100 agents normally working in Minnesota.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said.
He called Minnesotans’ response to the ICE surge “inspirational”, noting the people protesting peacefully, dropping off food for families staying home out of fear or standing watch outside schools and daycare centers. But he acknowledged there will be long-term needs after ICE leaves, including emergency assistance and business recovery assistance from the state.
The first step toward this, though, is for agents to leave completely, he said.
“If you’re looking for a rejuvenated economy, if you’re looking for things to come back, there’s a very clear antidote, which is for ICE to leave,” Frey said. “And once they do, yeah, we’re going to fling open the doors, we’re going to turn on the lights. People are going to come back into work, and we’re going to make sure that this economy gets rocking again … Minneapolis is going to bounce back strong.”
José Olivares
Delia Ramirez, the Democratic representative from Illinois, grilled the Veterans Affairs secretary, Doug Collins, about the VA’s changes in the past year under the Trump administration.
“We know that VA workers have been stripped of nearly all their labor rights. The department is struggling to staff and deliver services to veterans. Proven programs have been gutted while promising new, more effective solutions. And the Department of Homeland Security is kidnapping and deporting veterans and executing VA employees in broad daylight,” Ramirez said.
“You care about pleasing this president and advancing his ‘privatization to profit’ agenda,” she added.
Collins refused to answer any questions from Ramirez related to the shooting of Alex Pretti. Pretti was a VA nurse, who was shot and killed by federal immigration enforcement officials.
“Would you call for [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Noem to resign, given her execution of a VA employee?” Ramirez asked.
“I have said all on this issue that I’m going to say,” Collins replied.
Ramirez also questioned Collins on cuts to the VA workforce and whether non-citizen veterans deported from the US are receiving their benefits. Collins did not have an answer to the latter question.
Democratic senators say failed attempt to charge them over military video was ‘authoritarian’
Democratic senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the failed attempt of federal prosecutors to charge them criminally for releasing a video last year calling for troops to refuse to obey unlawful orders.
“They tried to have us charged and thrown into jail because we said something that they didn’t like,” Kelly said. “Because we repeated what the law actually is. This happened here. This is straight from the authoritarian playbook. This did not happen in Russia or China. In Russia and China, we see these things. This didn’t happen decades ago. It happened less than a mile from this building in the United States of America, yesterday.”
A Washington DC grand jury declined to indict the two, along with four other Democratic lawmakers who participated in the video, including Slotkin, Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who all have military and intelligence backgrounds.
Trump, in outrage, called for the group to be “hanged”.
“If things had gone a different way, we’d be preparing for arrest,” Slotkin said. The speakers on the video were “simply restating the law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice that military members had a duty to refuse illegal orders. We said nothing more than everyone from Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi have said themselves out of their own mouth. For that, President Trump said that we should be investigated, arrested and ultimately hanged.”
Slotkin said she refused a voluntary interview with prosecutors last week.
“The president is using our justice system to weaponize it against his perceived enemies,” Slotkin said.
Kelly is fighting a post-retirement censure from the defense department in court. But he said that the administration’s response has had a chilling effect on other veterans.
“Retired service members have told me that they have changed what they do and say publicly in their retirement, because of what has happened to us,” Kelly said. “That’s already happening. I hope in time that that corrects itself when they see Senator Slotkin and I standing up to these bullies.”
The two thanked the anonymous citizens on the grand jury for refusing to indict.
“If fear is contagious, so is courage,” Slotkin said. “The common citizen is showing the country and the world how to stand up for their values.”
Trump hosting Netanyahu at the White House
Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, are meeting at the White House on Wednesday, with Iran and Gaza on the agenda. Netanyahu is expected to press Trump for limits on Tehran’s missile arsenal and other security threats, while Trump looking to push the ceasefire agreement he brokered last year.
This is the seventh meeting between the two since Trump’s re-election, according to Reuters.
The meeting is an opportunity for Netanyahu to influence the next round of US discussions with Iran after nuclear negotiations held in Oman last Friday. Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no agreement is reached, while Tehran has vowed to retaliate, stoking fears of a wider war. Trump told Fox Business on Tuesday that a good deal with Iran would mean “no nuclear weapons, no missiles”, without elaborating. He also told Axios he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group as part of a major US buildup near Iran.
“I will present to the president our perceptions of the principles in the negotiations,” Netanyahu told reporters before departing for the US. The two leaders could also discuss potential military action if diplomacy with Iran fails, one source said.
House hearing on veterans affairs turns tense amid questions over VA nurse Alex Pretti’s killing
José Olivares
The secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins, and Representative Mark Takano of California engaged in a heated exchange during a House oversight hearing.
Takano grilled the secretary on his attempts to restructure the VA. Takano said there is a lack of transparency about the details of Collins’ goals. At one point, Takano asked Collins whether he is offering signing bonuses to new nurses and doctors, as the VA continues to struggle with staffing nationwide. “Quit yelling at me!” Collins said, as Takano grilled him on the question of staffing.
Takano then lambasted Collins for his public response to Alex Pretti’s shooting. Pretti was a VA nurse, who was killed by immigration enforcement officials in Minneapolis.
“Alex Pretti worked for you – can you just tell me, was he a good employee?” Takano asked.
“As far as I know, everything about it – I’ve already said what I’m gonna say about Alex Pretti and I’m not gonna be brought into anything else about it,” Collins said.
In response, Takano criticized Collins for not speaking out about his employee who was killed. Other Trump administration officials, after the shooting, called Pretti a “terrorist”.
“When your employee was attacked publicly and falsely, by your own colleagues, you had a choice to defend him or stay silent,” Takano said. “And you chose silence. And that silence is deafening.”
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, just began screaming at committee members after trying to avoid a question from Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York.
“I’m gonna answer the question,” Bondi screamed.
“No, answer my question,” Nadler said back.
“Your theatrics are ridiculous,” Bondi said. “Chairman Jordan, I’m not gonna get in the gutter with these people. But I’m gonna answer the question.”
Then Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the panel, interrupted to ask Nadler get more time to ask a question. “You can let her filibuster all day long, not on our watch, not on our time. No way,” he said.
When Raskin said he told Bondi she wouldn’t be allowed to take up time, Bondi screamed, “You don’t tell me anything,” and then proceeded to call Raskin “washed up” and “not even a lawyer”.