Page 26 - Trump Administration

US declines to label China a currency manipulator, but blasts its policies

The US declined to label China a currency manipulator in a new Treasury report released Thursday, but accuses Beijing of standing out among America's major trading partners for lacking transparency in its exchange rate policies. Treasury's semi-annual report to Congress called Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States comes as the Trump administration seeks to strike a trade deal with China, averting a trade war that has been brewing between the two nations. A Treasury official told reporters previewing the report that the US could in the future find evidence that China is manipulating its currency and will make a determination in the fall whether China has been manipulating the renminbi, also known as RMB. During President Donald Trump 's first term, the Treasury, which was then led by Secretary Steve Mnuchin, labeled China a currency manipulator in 2019 before then the US had not put China on the currency blacklist since ...

Musk threatens to decommission Dragon amid Trump feud, then backs down

Elon Musk briefly vowed to halt SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in protest of Donald Trump's SpaceX contract threats before reversing course after public and investor pressure

Harvard wins reprieve from Trump's ban on foreign students entering US

The Boston-based judge granted a temporary restraining order, saying Harvard would face "immediate and irreparable injury" if the proclamation went into effect

Chad announces suspension of US visas in response to Trump's travel ban

Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby on Thursday announced that his country will suspend the issuance of visas to U.S. citizens in response to the Trump administration's decision to ban Chadians from visiting the US. President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term when he announced the visa ban on 12 countries including Chad, accusing them of having deficient screening and vetting, and historically refusing to take back their own citizens who overstay in the United States. The new ban targets Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. There will also be heightened restrictions on visitors from seven others in the new travel policy which takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m. In a Facebook post, Chad's president said he is directing his government to suspend visas to U.S. citizens in accordance with the principles of reciprocity. Chad has no planes to offer, no billions

US trimming collection of consumer price data, raising reliability fears

The Bureau of Labour Statistics stated that the cuts would have 'minimal impact' on estimates of the overall inflation rate, though they could "increase the volatility" of more detailed measures

Trump seeks investigation into Biden's use of autopen to sign pardons

Donald Trump's signing of the memorandum follows months of critique over the use of an autopen, a device that replicates the president's signature without individual sign-off

India challenges 25% US auto tariffs at WTO, seeks safeguard consultations

India lodges a WTO complaint over steep US auto tariffs, citing safeguard violations and reserving its right to retaliate if talks fail

Trump admin revokes guidance mandating emergency abortions at hospitals

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation's hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions for women when they are necessary to stabilise their medical condition. That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the US Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the US. It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe haemorrhaging, among other serious complications. The Biden administration had argued that hospitals including states with near-total bans needed to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. That law requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilising treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the US rely on Medicare funds. The Trump administratio

India's Russia ties, Brics role 'rubs US the wrong way': US Commerce Secy

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said trade talks are heading in a positive direction as India addresses 'sensitive' concerns raised by President Trump

Would be delighted for India to produce a wide range of products: Lutnick

While the US is concerned about India's high tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the two countries could find common ground in a new trade agreement

Top Trump officials visit Alaska oil field amid push to expand drilling

President Donald Trump wants to double the amount of oil coursing through Alaska's vast pipeline system and build a massive natural gas project as its "big, beautiful twin," a top administration official said Monday while touring a prolific oil field near the Arctic Ocean. The remarks by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright came as he and two other Trump Cabinet members Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Prudhoe Bay as part of a multiday trip aimed at highlighting Trump's push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state that drew criticism from environmentalists. During the trip, Burgum's agency also announced plans to repeal Biden-era restrictions on future leasing and industrial development in portions of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that are designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values. The petroleum reserve is west of Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse, the industrial ...

US to move forward with tariffs despite court ruling, say Trump aides

The Trump administration has confirmed that the tariffs announced under President Donald Trump will proceed, with no plans to extend the 90-day tariff pause

China accuses US of violating trade truce over chip curbs, vows retaliation

US-China truce in jeopardy as Washington and Beijing trade accusations over Geneva trade agreement violations

US remittance tax to revive hawala, hand cartels a financial lifeline

The remittance tax risks reviving hawala networks, making it easier to fund drug and human smuggling, as criminal syndicates step in to exploit informal money transfer systems once again

US govt probes messages impersonating Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles

The US government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump's chief of staff. Trump said Wiles is an amazing woman and she can handle it". They breached the phone; they tried to impersonate her, Trump told reporters on Friday. Nobody can impersonate her. There's only one Susie. A White House official confirmed the investigation on Friday and said the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles' personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles' number, the newspaper reported. Some of those who recei

Elon Musk pledges to remain Trump adviser after stepping away from DOGE

"I expect to remain a friend and an adviser, and hopefully, if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service," Musk said

Appeals court keeps block on Trump admin's downsizing of federal workforce

An appeals court on Friday refused to freeze a California judge's order halting the Trump administration from downsizing the federal workforce, which means that DOGE-led cuts remain on pause for now. The Republican administration had sought an emergency stay of an injunction issued by US Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco in a lawsuit brought by labour unions and cities, including San Francisco and Chicago. The judge's order questioned whether Trump's administration was acting lawfully in trying to pare the federal workforce. Trump has repeatedly said voters gave him a mandate to remake the federal government, and he tapped billionaire Elon Musk to lead the charge through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, have left their jobs via deferred resignation programmes or have been placed on leave. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands

Elon Musk's legal battles expected to outlast his time in White House

At least three lawsuits are pending that accuse Trump of unconstitutionally handing the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive officer the equivalent of a cabinet-level post over the past four months

Lack of social-media profile could prompt visa denial, says Marco Rubio

Rubio's cable, sent to embassies worldwide, marked the latest salvo by the Trump administration against Harvard, the foreign students who go there and elite universities more broadly

US pauses exports of airplane and semiconductor technology to China

The new limits are pushing the world's largest economies a step closer toward supply chain warfare, as Washington and Beijing try to flex their power over essential economic components