Latest news with #JoeyGarrison
The Herald Scotland
09-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Herald Scotland
Trump boosts 'super luxury' UK automakers in new trade deal
In his much-touted trade agreement with the U.K. announced May 8, Trump kept a 10% baseline tariff on British products imported to the United States. But he lowered 25% universal tariffs on automobiles from the U.K. to 10%, while the 25% rate still applies to vehicles from other countries. Trump also agreed to eliminate 25% tariffs on steel from the U.K. More: Live updates: Trump announces trade deal with UK Trump has argued steep tariffs on automobiles are needed to help rejuvenate the U.S. auto industry, but he said luxury British vehicles fall in a different category. "That's really handmade stuff. They've been doing it for a long time in the same location," he said. "So I said, 'Yeah, that would be good. Let's help them out with that one.'" Trump added: "But that's different than a car company that comes out and makes millions of cars." More: Trump says he will look at tariff exemptions for baby products As part of the still-evolving U.S.-UK. trade pact, Trump also said the U.K. has agreed to reduce certain tariffs on U.S. exports. Trump said other details still need to be worked out. Trump said he will "rarely" make the same tariff reductions on automobiles during negotiations with other countries. Trump officials have cited substantive trade negotiations with 17 countries, including the U.K., and plan to kick off high-stakes talks with China this weekend in Geneva. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
USA Today
01-04-2025
- Business
- USA Today
The countdown to Trump's biggest round of tariffs
The countdown to Trump's biggest round of tariffs | The Excerpt On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison has the latest ahead of Wednesday's expected tariff announcement from President Donald Trump. Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood. They are asking for the Supreme Court's help. U.S. imports surged to record heights as consumers stocked up ahead of tariffs. USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise discusses the future of fire-resistant neighborhoods. How did April Fools' Day originate? Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, April 1st, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, the countdown to a major date surrounding tariffs, plus new data on record U.S. imports from January, and we discuss fire-resistant neighborhoods in the wake of recent years devastating wildfires. ♦ Taylor Wilson: President Donald Trump has marked tomorrow, April 2nd, as the date he'll announce details for his widespread tariff plans. I spoke with USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison for the latest. Thanks for joining me, Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey, thanks for having me on. Taylor Wilson: So Joey, big day tomorrow, this April 2nd date that's been circled on the calendar for weeks. What is on the way as it pertains to tariffs? Joey Garrison: What Trump plans to do tomorrow is begin the, what he's called, reciprocal tariffs that affect really all countries that trade with the United States. What he's promised to do is slap tariffs on imports coming from those countries at the same rate in which they tariff United States exports. And so Trump has made the argument that the U.S. has been getting screwed by these countries for years and that this is needed for the United States to reduce the trade deficits with those various countries. He's also made this argument really without a lot of evidence, that this will reinvigorate, rejuvenate domestic manufacturing in various key industries in the United States. Things that have depleted really since the 80s and 90s. And so that's kind of the argument President Trump has made as we finally arrive at what Trump has called Liberation Day, coming here on Wednesday tomorrow. Taylor Wilson: And I guess, Joey, we should expect retaliatory action from the EU and others. Is that fair to say? Joey Garrison: Yeah, I mean, we've already seen retaliatory tariffs coming from countries like Canada, China, following Trump's tariffs that he's already put in place. Now, the Trump administration has circled really about 15% of these countries that have the largest trade deficits of the United States as the ones that will be most affected. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called these the Dirty 15. They include China, among them, countries that the administration is planning to target heaviest with these. Once we see the specifics on a lot of these numbers, we're going to see that it's really concentrated, and most of the revenue from these tariffs will be coming from a handful of places. Taylor Wilson: Joey, I know we've all been kind of wondering aloud for weeks on just kind of how this will land with consumers. We're a day away now; what's the sense? Joey Garrison: Most economists expect this is going to increase prices for a lot of goods for Americans, and it comes at an interesting time given that Trump in part was elected to his presidency on this promise of taking down inflation. But tariffs are taxes on goods and tend to get passed down to consumers. They're an inflationary practice here, so I think that's the most immediate effect for Americans. Now, Trump will tell you that there'll be an effect, maybe more in the long term, that is going to rejuvenate manufactured in the U.S., but it's really tricky to point to when exactly that'll happen. I think that the White House will probably start claiming various economic announcements that come after this date. Maybe it were a result of this. We'll have to see whether that was in fact the case. But in addition to those two things, I think the stock market we've already seen, based on what Trump's previous tariffs, since the stock market nosediving, and if this is indeed the biggest yet, it's going to be very important to check the stock market whether there's a big selloff as a result on this Wednesday. Now Peter Navarro, the top White House aide who's overseeing a lot of the tariff policy, and he said that this is going to raise $6 trillion for the United States over the next decade. And if it is indeed that scale, some economists are calling that one of the largest tax hikes in the United States history. I mean, in terms of the amount of revenue you're all of a sudden collecting from companies as a result of these tariffs. And so, if it's that kind of scale, and we'll see if there's a huge market reaction. Now again, the Trump administration says a lot of that money, if we're talking about that kind of money raised over a certain amount of time, then that can be used to take down part of the U.S. deficit. So that's again one of the strategies the White House is talking about. Taylor Wilson: Well, as you mentioned earlier, Trump has really said that these moves will revive U.S. manufacturing. What do experts say about those plans, Joey? Joey Garrison: Well, I think that they look at them with a lot of skepticism. I mean, you're trying to reverse decades of economic gravity here in terms of how a lot of these manufacturing jobs got outsourced to various other countries. You're talking about a huge transformation, and maybe tariffs could be a piece of that, but I think there's other things that are probably part of bringing some of these industries that have faded for the United States in recent years. And so I don't think the administration has really articulated how down the road the Americans start seeing that kind of thing. I think that'll be one of the big challenges they have is to try to begin making that argument in the way that people see it, to convince Americans that this was the right policy for this moment. Taylor Wilson: President Trump has been very strong-willed on these tariffs, Joey, even amid all this economic uncertainty you mentioned. Has he changed his tone at all this week, or has he been pretty consistent? Joey Garrison: After building these tariffs up for several weeks. He said, "Well, the numbers might be more conservative, more lenient, narrower than a lot of the countries might expect," but nevertheless, he said, they'll still be significant for these countries. So it again kind of continues this whiplash approach to these tariffs that Trump has used since he returned to the White House is one minute talking big tariffs on Canada on certain sectors. The next minute it's canceling some of them; even when it came to previewing these tariffs, he's kind of gone back and forth on whether it's going to really hit these countries hard or whether it's going to be lenient. So, I guess, we'll see what actually materializes tomorrow. Taylor Wilson: Joey Garrison covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thanks, Joey. Joey Garrison: Thank you. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Meanwhile, as people race to stock up in advance of President Trump's announced tariffs. The U.S. imported more goods in January than in any other month since the government started tracking the data. The import surge was driven by major increases from the country's three largest trading partners, China, Canada, and Mexico. According to a USA TODAY analysis of recently released U.S. census trade data. Together, those nations provide nearly half of the foreign goods consumed in the U.S., and they were key targets of tariffs that went into effect last month. More tariffs, including a 25% tariff on autos and auto parts, are scheduled to begin tomorrow. You can read more with a link in today's show notes. ♦ Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood, and they're asking for the Supreme Court's help in a pushback by the Trump administration. South Carolina wants to lock Planned Parenthood out of its Medicaid program because it performs abortions. A lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group, said the taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund facilities that choose to profit off abortion. That lawyer, John Bursch, will be representing the state when the Supreme Court takes up South Carolina's appeal tomorrow. Medicaid, which is funded primarily through federal dollars and operated by states for their low-income residents, already prohibits coverage of abortion in most cases. But South Carolina argues that money Planned Parenthood gets from the government for providing birth control, cancer screenings, physical exams, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and other health services frees up their funds to provide more abortions. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood patients nationwide get their healthcare through Medicaid, although that share is lower in South Carolina, which has tighter eligibility rules than most states according to the organization. Three other states, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, already blocked Planned Parenthood from seeing Medicaid patients, and many other Republican-led states are expected to do the same if the Supreme Court sides with South Carolina. ♦ Could wildfire-resistant neighborhoods be part of the future? They're already here in California. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise for more. Thanks for having on Beth. Elizabeth Weise: Happy to be here. Taylor Wilson: What can you tell us about this new fire-resistant development in California? What is this? Elizabeth Weise: It's this company, KB Home, and they're down in San Diego County. So I talked to the owner of the company, and not a year ago he saw this demonstration where they basically set fire to two houses, one built in the 1980s and one built to new fire standard codes. And the 1981 burned to the ground, and the other one did not catch on fire. And this was kind of when he was like, "Whoa, we need to do this to the homes we're building in fire-prone areas." And they had a project that was going to go up in Escondido down in San Diego County, which is in a very fire-prone area because it's in my favorite phrase, the wooey, the wildland urban interface. And so, they, like, on a dime, pivoted and revamped the 64 homes and the entire subdivision so that it fit with fire safety standards, which was pretty amazing that they did it so quickly. Taylor Wilson: Well, I want to get a little bit to the heart of some of this technology, Beth, and you mentioned that 1980 home that just went right up in flames. What really is different about fire-resistant homes now compared to in previous eras? What technologies available now, I guess, that wasn't a generation or two ago? Elizabeth Weise: It doesn't take a lot of technology. It just takes kind of thinking about how does fire work. So really simple things: you cover your gutters so that embers don't get in the gutters because you usually have, you know, leaf or needles there; they catch on fire, and then your house catches on fire. In your eaves, if you have airspace because you want your house to breathe, you cover that with filters, because if you've been anywhere near one of these big fires, I mean miles away, these embers just float through the sky, and they can get sucked into your house and then your attic is on fire from within. And once it's on fire from within, your house is gone. Stucco on fiber cement sidings so that it doesn't burn, tempered glass windows that they don't shatter in the heat because that's a problem with older homes, like the house itself hasn't actually caught on fire, but the heat is enough that it shatters the windows, and then you have a big gaping hole where all the embers can come in, and then your drapes and your couch are on fire, and then your house is on fire. Metal fencing, because, and they've shown me pictures of this. I mean, you can see it if you look at some of the LA fire drone footage where there's these lines of fires that are kind of creeping up towards a house, and they're following these beautiful, wonderful wooden fences straight to the house, and then they catch the house on fire. And so they use metal ones instead, and they don't burn. Taylor Wilson: Well, I'm curious, Beth, if this is just, I guess, specific to California and this neighborhood, or is this approach translatable around the country? Anywhere that gets wildfires? Elizabeth Weise: This is actually translatable around the country, and I was actually just talking to some folks in the insurance industry, and a lot of states are looking at this. At this point, mostly in the West, California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona are all looking at this because they're all building in areas that are fire prone. But we're seeing these kinds of fires... I mean, there are fires right now in Florida and North Carolina; there are fires everywhere right now. It's getting drier and it's getting hotter, and things are burning. Taylor Wilson: I think a lot about class differences in natural disasters, Beth; it's like, will fire-resistant homes be affordable in the near future? Is this approach feasible for, say, massive apartment complexes and other types of living structures? Elizabeth Weise: It's not an inordinately expensive thing to do to a house. I mean, we're not talking tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, there was one report that suggested that kind of doing things that would really protect a house pretty well, maybe $1,700. I mean, you have to get up, and maybe you replace the vents that go into your eaves, but we're not talking like some insanely new technology. What's interesting about what happened in Escondido is that it's a whole subdivision. It's getting built all at once. So, one, you have economies of scale, so it's much cheaper if you kind of do every house this way all at once. And then it's really, it's a force multiplier because that whole subdivision then is much less combustible. And actually it functions kind of as a firebreak for all of the homes around it too, because fire is not going to start in that, and then it's not going to go through it and onto the next subdivision or the next group of houses. Taylor Wilson: That's a great point, fire resistance being good for the entire community. This is another interesting piece, Beth. Elizabeth Weise is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Thanks, Beth. Elizabeth Weise: Happy to be here. ♦ Taylor Wilson: And I'm giving you forewarning: today is April Fool's Day. While there were similar holidays in ancient Rome and Britain, the oldest historical reference appears to come in a Flemish poem from 1561 when a nobleman sends his servant on fool's errands on April 1st. That's according to a history of the holiday written by Stephen Winick of the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center. By the 1800s, April Fool's Day had become a mainstay of American culture. "The 1st of April is the day we remember what we are; the other 364 days of the year." Mark Twain is credited with saying that, according to the Encyclopedia of American Folklore. ♦ Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
14-03-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Chuck Schumer will vote for GOP funding bill, reducing shutdown odds
Chuck Schumer will vote for GOP funding bill, reducing shutdown odds | The Excerpt On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says he will vote to advance the Republican funding extension ahead of a government shutdown deadline Friday. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison discusses a judge's order to reinstate tens of thousands of fired probationary workers. A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds most Americans believe President Donald Trump is being too 'erratic' on the economy. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to let birthright citizenship changes proceed. USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise talks about the arrival of spring bird migration season. Have feedback on the show? Please send us an email at podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, March 14th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, promising signs on avoiding a government shutdown, but the clock is ticking. Plus, a judge orders tens of thousands of fired workers reinstated and it's peak spring migration season for birds. ♦ Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he will vote to advance the Republican funding extension to potentially avoid a government shutdown at the end of the day today. Schumer's announcement significantly increases the chances that enough Democratic senators will side with Republicans to avoid a shutdown, despite widespread frustration with the GOP plan among the conference. Still, speaking to reporters, Schumer would not say whether there were enough Democrats who planned to join him to stop a shutdown. Schumer's position will also likely bring blowback from the left wing of the party, which has been pushing lawmakers to show they are willing to fight President Donald Trump's efforts to remake the federal bureaucracy. You can stay up on all the latest with lawmakers' push to avoid a shutdown on ♦ The Trump administration has been ordered to reinstate tens of thousands of fired probationary workers. I caught up with USA TODAY White House correspondent Joey Garrison for a closer look at the US District judge's ruling. Hello, Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey there. Thanks for having me on. Taylor Wilson: Thanks for hopping on, Joey. So another busy news day here. What did a California judge rule yesterday and what does this now mean for recently fired probationary workers? Who does this really impact? Joey Garrison: A federal district judge in San Francisco ruled that all the tens of thousands of probationary workers at six specific departments must be reinstated to their positions. This comes after we've had a couple of different waves of terminations pushed by the Trump administration. This was the initial wave that affected what are known as probationary workers. These are people who have been hired to the federal government or promoted to a new position within the past year. They lack a lot of the civil service protections that career government employees have, and so they're more easily fired and that's why they were targeted. The judge ruled that the Office of Personnel Management that executed these firings did not have the authority to order departments to make the terminations and so therefore acted unlawfully. And so as a result of that, the administration has been ordered to reinstate these workers, but it's unclear whether the Trump administration in fact, will do that. You've heard it from a number of Trump officials since Trump was inaugurated for his second term, that they feel that it's the executive branch, the president who has ultimate authority and that district judges don't actually have this power. Of course, that would be an extraordinary thing, but I think moving forward, we're going to have to figure out how this plays out from here. Whether these workers actually are told, "Hey, your terminations have been rescinded here." Taylor Wilson: Well, Joey, just in the immediate aftermath of this judge's decision, what did we hear from the White House? Really how are they responding here? Joey Garrison: Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary accused the judge of, "Attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the executive branch," and vowed that the Trump administration will immediately fight back against this ruling. And so that's obviously signaling, though they didn't say it, an appeal, but by the fact that they're arguing that the judge is acting unlawfully here, I'm still curious whether they actually are going to comply with the order. Normally, historically, after such an order like this, you would get some sort of statement that says, "We're going to comply with the order as the judge has said," but we didn't hear that. And so I think it leaves an open-ended question there. The six departments that are affected in this, in which reinstatements have been ordered are the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior, and Treasury. Now, this decision by the judge was in response to a case lawsuit filed by government employee unions, nonprofits that had cited a number of other additional federal departments as well. But this ruling only applies to these six. Taylor Wilson: And how did this ruling land with union officials, Joey? Joey Garrison: Yeah, obviously they celebrated the ruling, but they made clear that they want to see all the recently fired federal workers be reinstated. Now, just so happened that this ruling came on Thursday, which federal departments faced a deadline to provide so-called plans for large scale reductions in force. And this goes beyond just the probationary workers who were targeted a few weeks ago with terminations for broader, deeper cuts across those departments. We've seen some of those leaked already or released. For example, the Department of Education Planning to cut 1300 Department of Ed workers. VA administration has talked about cutting 76,000 of its employees. This ruling does not apply to that round of RIF, reductions in force. And so I do wonder whether this is going to provide possible template for future litigation quickly from the same groups who brought this lawsuit. Taylor Wilson: All right, great explainer. Joey Garrison is a White House correspondent with USA TODAY. Thank you, Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey, thank you. ♦ Taylor Wilson: The majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump is being too erratic in his moves to shake up the economy. That's according to a new Reuters Ipsos poll. 57% of respondents, including one in three Republicans, said the president's policies have been unsteady as his efforts to tax imports have set off a global trade war. Trump's tariffs and refusal to rule out a recession have rattled the stock market. The S&P 500, for instance, has lost more than $3 trillion in value since its all-time peak last month. ♦ President Trump in an emergency request yesterday asked the Supreme Court to allow restrictions to birthright citizenship to take effect for some, as challenges to his executive order are litigated. Multiple judges in separate cases across the country have blocked the order from going into effect, and appeals courts have declined to lift the holds. The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to limit the scope of the pauses to specific challengers and to allow the administration to develop guidance on how it would implement Trump's directive if it's upheld. Trump wants to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US if neither of their parents is lawfully in the country. And he says he believes the Supreme Court justices will agree that he can take the step as part of his effort to bolster immigration enforcement. Democratic state attorneys general, immigration rights advocates, and others challenging the order argue the Supreme Court made it clear all the way back in 1898 that the 14th Amendment citizenship clause guarantees children born in the US the right to automatic citizenship, regardless of their parents' immigration status. ♦ It is peak spring bird migration season. I spoke with USA TODAY national correspondent Elizabeth Weise about what to look out for. Hello, Beth. Elizabeth Weise: Hey, how's it going? Taylor Wilson: Good. Good. Thanks for hopping on on this fun story. So just tell us at the start here, Beth, about this peak migration season and really what we're seeing happen right now. Elizabeth Weise: And this was kind of fascinating to me because I frankly did not know this. I am not a bird watcher really. I like birds, but I listen to them using this app Merlin, but I can never actually see them. You know that birds migrate, you see geese and you're like, "Oh, they're going south for the winter." But it turns out in the spring in the US there can be as many as 500 million birds flying over us at night when we can't see them because they're all on their way to the spring. They're going north to where they're going to nest and eat, and then in the winter they're going south where there's more food. Taylor Wilson: I'm just curious. There are a few animals that do this, but birds in particular just fascinate me when it comes to migration. Why do they do this? Elizabeth Weise: Not all of them do, but a lot of them do. And basically they are following the food source. So in the spring, things warm up, plants start greening up. When the plants green up, the insects come out. And so a lot of times these birds are eating the insects. And so they call it the pulse of life that moves northward. And the birds are following that because that's their food source. They end up where is the best match for the kinds of food or insects or whatever they like to eat, and that's where they will nest and have their chicks and bring in the next generation. And then when the fall starts to hit and those food sources go away, they come south again to where there is food. Taylor Wilson: So Beth, is that the big indicator for them when the bugs come out? I'm just curious like how they know when, where and how to migrate. Elizabeth Weise: If you could figure that one out, you could win the Nobel Prize. We don't really know. We know that there's a lot of things involved because if you think about it, the birds that migrate are often the ones that were born this year. They've never done it before. So how do they know? They think it's the length of day, it's the location of the sun, at night, the location of the stars. There are probably some that are sensing the earth's magnetic field. So it's kind of one of those mysteries. We're starting to understand it a little bit, but there there's a lot we don't get. Taylor Wilson: So what are some different types of migrations to look out for? Elizabeth Weise: There's these ones called altitudinal migrants. They live in mountains and in the spring they move uphill because it's warmer and there are bugs there. And then in the winter they move downhill because they're going to where it's not as cold and there's still some food. And those are things like mountain chickadees and rosy finches. And then you get these short-term migrants and they may just go a couple of hundred miles because they're just looking for a better food source. Medium-distance migrants, they might breed in the Northeast, but they go down to the southeast. And then you get these crazy, and these are the ones that National Geographic does amazing specials on. These are these long-distance migrants who fly thousands of miles. They can go from Alaska all the way down to the Amazon in South America. And those are just the amazing ones. Those are Blackpoll warblers and the Arctic tern, Hudsonian godwits. They're amazing. And some of them fly the whole way. They don't even stop to eat. Taylor Wilson: Beth, is there anything unique about migration in this moment in time? Any impacts from climate change? The human aspect here? What can you tell us about migration this year? Elizabeth Weise: Well, yeah, there's always a climate change impact, sadly. The problem is that these birds evolved to migrate when the seasons were changing. They evolved to get to certain places when spring had arrived, and that's when all the insects were there because that's when everything was budding or blooming. The problem is things are getting warmer in the spring and things are not cooling down as much in the winter. And so sometimes the birds may migrate as they have always migrated and they arrive someplace. And the food supply that had always been there for them isn't there, and then not as many birds survive. There was a report out showing that US bird populations are, in fact, still falling. And part of that is that they are hardwired to go to these places and look for these foods. And those foods are not always there in the amounts that they are used to, and some of them starve to death. Taylor Wilson: All right. Elizabeth Weise is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Beth, I always love talking about the animal kingdom with you. Thanks for hopping on. Elizabeth Weise: Happy to be here. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Bailey. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
10-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Treasury secretary warns U.S. could enter 'detox period'
Treasury secretary warns U.S. could enter 'detox period' | The Excerpt On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House Reporter Joey Garrison explains what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's warning could mean for the U.S. economy. President Donald Trump threatens Russia with sanctions. American liquor, wine and spirits are pulled from Canadian shelves in response to Trump's tariffs. Officials released the cause of death for actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. USA TODAY Border and Immigration Correspondent Lauren Villagran talks about the role faith plays in encouraging migrants to head towards the U.S. border. Have feedback on the show? Please send us an email at podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Cody Godwin: Good morning. I'm Cody Godwin for Taylor Wilson. Today is Saturday, March 8th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, Treasury Secretary Bessent warns that the U.S. economy may experience a detox period plus Trump threatens tariffs on Russia after a massive attack in Ukraine and how some immigrants are saying it's God himself who's telling them to come north. ♦ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Friday that the U.S. economy could enter a "detox period" as the Trump administration shifts from robust government spending to push more private sector spending. For more on what this means, my colleague Dana Taylor, spoke with USA TODAY White House reporter, Joey Garrison. Dana Taylor: Joey, thanks for hopping on the podcast. Joey Garrison: Thanks for having me on. Dana Taylor: So Joey, let's start with this rather ominous warning by Secretary Bessent. What is he trying to say here? Joey Garrison: Scott Bessent's appearance on CNBC Squawk Box, which is kind of a go-to show for economic insiders and the stock market watchers was asked about the recent stock market dive, although it did pick up on Friday and some of the other underlying economic metrics. And he said there could be what he called a detox period, a slowdown in the economy. He said, "Could we be seeing that the economy that we inherited is starting to roll a bit? Sure." And so this was an acknowledgement from the Trump administration of what we are seeing in the state of the economy right now in terms of some potential signs of slippage. There was also a new jobs report that the Trump administration touted, but it was 151,000 jobs reported in February, which was down below projections. And Trump ran on improving the economy, lowering consumer prices for Americans. But that latter promise in particular is proven a little bit harder perhaps than the day one lowering prices promised that Trump had suggested. Dana Taylor: So is the message from the Trump administration just stick with us and we'll get there? Joey Garrison: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, they are still blaming a lot of the current economic situation on the previous Biden administration. So for example, when Bessent was talking about the detox period, he was saying, look, we're moving from a period in which you had aggressive government spending under President Biden to where we're now trying to have less of that. Of course, we've seen that with the rapid cuts that DOGE led by Elon Musk and the firing of federal workers. We're trying to spend less from the government and push that more to the private sector and he's saying there could be this detox period before a "equilibrium" is struck there. But what they're not really acknowledging as part of the economic uncertainty right now brought on by these tariffs that President Trump has imposed on Canada and Mexico this past week. He started with 25% tariffs across the board, backtracked a little bit by first excluding automobile imports from those tariffs, and then any goods that are protected under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. So he's kind of backtracked on that. But what tariffs are, of course are taxes on goods that are imported into the U.S. Economists point out that those prices are usually pushed down to consumers with higher price tags on goods people purchase. So when we saw the tumbling stock market over the past week, that was a response to those tariffs, which spooked a lot of companies out there and a lot of investors. Dana Taylor: Another campaign promise was lower interest rates. Did he say what the Trump admin was doing on this front? Joey Garrison: Yeah, I mean the Trump administration and Bessent, have been actively urging the Fed to lower interest rates. That's a different approach than President Biden who left the Fed to be independent and tried not to direct which way it was going with things. But Bessent was really downplaying it, which is kind of a shift. Of course, Trump in his first term was always quick to tout stock market gains that would occur, but Bessent in his interview said, Hey, look, there were stock market gains during the Biden administration, but that doesn't mean that the American people believed that there was a strong economy and noted that Biden was voted out. So it's definitely a shift in tone on how they're interpreting what they're seeing from the market right now. Dana Taylor: Joey, is there any good news that Treasury or the administration did share yesterday Joey Garrison: Regarding those jobs numbers, President Trump and Bessent, as well as other top economic advisors really touted the fact that the majority of newly created jobs were in the private sector, whereas often under President Biden, those jobs came from government employees. So they looked at that as evidence that their economic agenda is working and actually one top advisor said, Hey, we're starting to see a glimpse of the golden age to come. Of course, Trump talked about a new golden age in American prosperity when he was sworn into office, but I think they still want to pin some of the current problems that we're looking at on Biden, and I think as we move forward, that's just going to be more problematic to do. You get sort of a grace period I think after you're initially elected where you can say, look, I inherited this mess, but eventually people are going to look for him to fulfill that campaign promise. So there's a signs up there of a public and electorate that's antsy right now on the state of things. So when you have Treasury Secretary Bessent saying, Hey, look, we might have a detox period. I think that's maybe only going to stoke more anxiety out there. Dana Taylor: Joey Garrison covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thanks Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey, thanks for having me on. ♦ Cody Godwin: President Donald Trump said yesterday that he would not immediately resume U.S. weapons and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, adding that he remains unconvinced, Ukraine is ready for peace. Trump also threatened sanctions on Russia after it bombarded Ukraine with missiles Thursday night. The attack damaged energy infrastructure and led to a renewed call for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for a ceasefire. Trump said he was strongly considering large-scale banking restrictions, sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a peace deal is secured. The U.S. and its allies already have substantial sanctions on Russia that the Trump administration has said it intends to rigorously enforce. The relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine was recently thrown into chaos after a meeting between Trump and Zelensky went south last week. The Trump administration is now preparing to meet with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss a peace deal. ♦ Although tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico have received a temporary reprieve from Trump until April 2nd, American companies are already sweating over Canadian consumer backlash. U.S. liquor, wine and spirit brands have been pulled off the shelves of many Canadian stores as retaliatory response to Trump's tariffs. Lawson Whiting, CEO of Brown‐Forman, the maker of Jack Daniels said the move is, "worse than a tariff". Experts predict this sentiment could affect other industries in the U.S. too. Meat and agriculture products, apparel, autos, hotel and airlines among them. Economics Professor Kris Mitchener says that the share of most American companies exports to Canada is on average small. So most are insulated from the boycott there. He says if it spreads to other countries, that's when American companies would really feel the pressure. ♦ The cause of death for actor Gene Hackman has been released. The Oscar winner was found dead alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa and their dog in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 26th. The New Mexico office of the medical investigator announced that Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare disease, and that Hackman died from natural causes about a week later. He had heart disease and complications caused by Alzheimer's disease. The investigators said that Hackman likely didn't know his wife had died citing his Alzheimer's disease. Hantavirus can be contracted from contact with rodents like rats and mice. It cannot pass from person to person and dogs cannot contract hantavirus. Hackman was 95 and his wife Arakawa was 64. Family members and Hollywood stars poured in with statements online mourning the actor. ♦ What role does faith play in encouraging migrants on the treacherous journey north to the U.S. border? A new study says a big one. My colleague Taylor Wilson spoke with USA TODAY border and immigration correspondent Lauren Villagran to learn more. Taylor Wilson: Hey there Lauren. Lauren Villagran: Hey Taylor. Taylor Wilson: So Lauren, what did this study find about the role of faith in migration and how exactly was this research carried out? Lauren Villagran: There's a really interesting report that's new from the University of Texas at El Paso and research partners that really shows in data what many border reporters have heard for years. Often when you interview migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, especially on the Mexican side, regardless of what's happening with U.S. policy, new obstacles that are being put in migrants way, you'll often hear them end their conversation with "Si Dios quiere" if God wishes, God willing. And researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso set out to understand what migrants really understood about the U.S. asylum system and found out in the course of their research that in fact faith and their own religiosity had as much influence on the decisions they made on Route North as what they understood about the asylum system, which was very little. Taylor Wilson: Something that caught my attention here, Lauren, was that in their home countries, migrants were not necessarily more religious than Americans according to survey findings. Can you talk through that and what is it about the migration journey that might lead folks to turn to God or spirituality? Lauren Villagran: I mean, we know that the migration journey over land from Latin America through Central America and Mexico can be incredibly dangerous. People face a host of threats, whether it's corrupt authorities, organized crime along the way, poverty struggles. This particular study, which was conducted in Ciudad Juárez across the river from El Paso, Texas during a four-month period in 2023 found, and just listen to this number Taylor, that 73% of migrants interviewed reported receiving a sign from God on their journey that encouraged them to keep going north. 71% reported praying at least once a day. And this again is even among people, maybe fewer than half of whom attended church services back in their home country. Taylor Wilson: You mentioned some of the confusion, Lauren, over the asylum process in recent years, even going back to the Biden era, how does that factor into this conversation and this idea of putting faith in religion or God or whatever spiritual foundation they have during all this confusion? Lauren Villagran: So we have to remember that this is an academic study, which means that it wasn't conducted yesterday. Things were very different at the border in 2023 when the research was conducted and there was a reigning narrative in the United States at the time that millions of people were trying to game the system, seek asylum when really they weren't going to qualify for it. And researchers set out to find out, well really how much did migrants from places like Guatemala, Honduras, or Venezuela, what did they really know about the U.S. immigration system, the U.S. asylum system, when they set out on their journey and what did they learn on their way? And what the researchers found was that they understood very little migrants tended to look one step ahead, not 10 steps ahead. There was a general understanding that there was a way to make a claim at the border, but very little understanding of the complexity of the U.S. asylum system. And Taylor, to be fair to the migrants, I mean many Americans don't fully understand the trappings of the U.S. asylum system as they were at the time in 2023. It's an incredibly complex system that really requires a law degree to understand completely. Taylor Wilson: So Lauren, you read about the kind of Trump factor in this piece as well, and I'm curious, this is a guy with strong support from Christian bases. He's even directed the federal government to eradicate anti-Christian bias. I'm just curious, how has faith factored into some of what we've seen from Trump on the campaign trail and in office? Lauren Villagran: Part of the reason the findings are so interesting, I think Taylor is because you see widespread support for President Donald Trump among the Christian community that includes white evangelicals. 55% of Catholics voted for Trump according to an AP VoteCast study poll following the November election. And we haven't seen a lot about the makeup of the recent migrants that have so many Americans concerned about border security. The findings of this study are in some ways somewhat narrow. There were 300 people interviewed, not hundreds of thousands. That being said, the role that Christianity and that Christian faith plays in their lives might be of interest to some of the Christian voters and supporters of President Trump's now tougher border policies. Taylor Wilson: All right, great piece from you as always, Lauren. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA TODAY. Thank you Lauren. Lauren Villagran: Thanks for having me. ♦ Cody Godwin: David Leonard Wood is angry. The sixty-seven-year-old is currently on death row awaiting execution in Texas for the murder of six girls and young women in 1987. His execution is scheduled to take place in just four days. Wood has always maintained his innocence and says he was targeted by police. David Leonard Wood: How can I not be angry at the corruption that put me here? How can you let people just dump cases on you and not be angry? Cody Godwin: In an exclusive interview USA TODAY death row reporter Amanda Lee Myers sat down with Wood in prison to hear his story. You can hear that episode right here on Sunday morning beginning at 5 A.M. Eastern. ♦ And before we go, it's that time of year again, daylight savings. Clocks are jumping ahead an hour tomorrow, so don't forget to adjust any analog clocks when you wake up. ♦ Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Cody Godwin. Taylor Wilson will be back on Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
07-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Trump backpedals on Mexico, Canada tariffs
Trump backpedals on Mexico, Canada tariffs | The Excerpt On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison discusses President Donald Trump's postponement of new tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico that fall under the three nations' free trade deal. President Trump's sweeping freeze on federal funding has been hit with another legal blow. A deadline looms to avoid a government shutdown. SpaceX's Starship rocket broke up during its eighth uncrewed flight test. USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise discusses a rapid decline in the U.S. butterfly population. Have feedback on the show? Please send us an email at podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Cody Godwin: Good morning. I'm Cody Godwin in for Taylor Wilson. Today is Friday, March 7th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, Trump postponed the newly imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, plus the US has one week to pass legislation to prevent a government shutdown, and why scientists are concerned about the population of butterflies in the US. ♦ There's a new twist to the tariff saga, as President Donald Trump yesterday took executive action, postponing new tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement for one month. Taylor Wilson spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Joey Garrison for the latest, with Joey joining us directly from the White House. Taylor Wilson: Hello, Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey, thanks for having me. Taylor Wilson: Thanks for hopping on, Joey. So we have another tariff reversal here, Joey. What is the latest? Joey Garrison: On Wednesday, President Trump announced that he would be exempting auto imports from Canada and Mexico from these newly imposed 25% tariffs. And then on Thursday, that went further, by exempting all products that are part of the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. That was an agreement that was orchestrated by Trump during his first administration. So what that effectively does is it shields, carves out about half of the imports from Mexico from being tariffed, and about 38% of the imports from Canada. So, when you couple that with what we've seen already with the automobiles, he has sort of scaled back what was originally these widespread blanket 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canadian goods. Taylor Wilson: And Joey, did Trump outline any reasons for this latest switch? I know we've seen the markets kind of freak out this week, especially. Did he mention that, and how else did he argue for this latest chapter turn? Joey Garrison: Yeah, so President Trump signed these. And he actually signed both of them together, both the auto exemptions, as well as the ones on the US-Mexico-Canadian Agreement, but he didn't really explain exactly why. He just kept reiterating the April 2nd date, and that is what he keeps circling over and over when these so-called reciprocal tariffs go to effect. That's whereby the US imposes the exact tariff rate on any country's goods in which they tariff US exports. So that's essentially, "If you tariff us, we're going to tariff you back." It's impossible to ignore the fact that this kind of step back here, this walk back comes after the stock market has really been rattled by Trump's actions on these tariffs earlier this week. And there's been widespread anxiety among consumers about higher prices. Of course, Trump got elected in part because of a promise to lower their prices, and these tariffs, typically, are passed down to the consumer. So, I think you do have to look at the context in which he has backpedaled on these tariffs. Taylor Wilson: It sounds like he had a pretty productive call, Joey, with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, but he also went after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. How so? What happened there? And I know this isn't the first time. Joey Garrison: Yeah, they kind of have an increasingly hostile relationship with each other. Trudeau, of course, announced it earlier this year that he was going to step down once his party finds a new leader. That's not happened yet. But earlier this week, Trudeau had a defiant speech, remarks after Trump's initial tariff announcement, said, "Hey, we're going to hit you back." He imposed their own tariffs, really starting to trade war here. And he also took a hit at Trump over Trump's recent public blow up with Zelensky, and accused Trump of siding, of course, with Putin. And so there's a lot going on there. And so, Trump continues to call Trudeau the governor of Canada, which is a slap at him of course, and this idea that Canada could be brought on as the 51st state. And Trump has accused Trudeau of jumping all over this tariff issue in order to stay in power. As you noted, Trump had very high praise actually for the Mexican president, and said that they created really working together on efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl, as well as migrants coming into the US illegally, but he's not had that same praise for Trudeau and continues to go after him. Taylor Wilson: All right, so I guess April 2nd is now the date to circle on the calendar. What are you keeping an eye out for, Joey, between now and then? Joey Garrison: Yeah, April 2nd obviously is booked, but I'm still wondering whether there might even be more changes ahead on these current tariffs. We'll see, I guess when the market's open, whether this has done enough to change things. I thought it was interesting that President Trump, throughout his first term in office, would love to trumpet the market whenever there was a stock market rise. But now, when asked about the tumbling, he said he's barely been paying attention to it, and accused it of corporate globalist companies that are the reason that the stock market has responded negatively. And so, I think that was an interesting change of tune when it comes to the stock market from Trump. Taylor Wilson: There's news on this seemingly every day. Joey Garrison covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thank you, Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey, thanks, Taylor. ♦ Cody Godwin: The Trump administration yesterday suffered another legal blow in its efforts to freeze federal funding for programs that do not align with his agenda. A second judge blocked it from implementing a sweeping pause on spending grants, loans and other financial support. US district Judge John McConnell's decision was built on an earlier temporary restraining order he issued in January, and came after another judge in Washington last month issued a preliminary injunction that similarly blocked what she called, "An ill-conceived, abrupt pause on up to $3 trillion in federal funding." The administration is expected to appeal the decision. ♦ We have a week to go until federal funding dries up and the US government shuts down if Congress can't pass legislation by March 14th. A shutdown would force a majority of federal workers to stop working and go without pay. Services deemed as essential, like border protection, air traffic control, and power grid maintenance, as well as payments for social security, Medicare and Medicaid would continue, but other things would be interrupted. Services at the National Parks would be closed, environmental and food inspections would stop, researchers at the National Institutes of Health would not be able to admit new patients, and IRS tax help would possibly be interrupted. Republican leaders in both chambers say they want to extend current funding, and House speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the details of the proposal will be available as soon as today, but absent Democratic support for the proposal, it can only afford to lose one GOP vote in the house, where Republicans currently control the chamber, 218 to 214. Democrats and both the House and Senate have said Republicans cannot count on them to help keep the government open if they aren't given a say in the package. ♦ SpaceX's Starship rocket broke up during its eighth uncrewed flight yesterday. The incident sent debris shooting through the sky and temporarily affected flights at some South Florida airports. It was the second setback of its kind for SpaceX since January. The previous Starship demonstration on January 16th ended in a fiery explosion after the Starship vehicle was lost during its suborbital flight. SpaceX, which conducted an investigation with the FAA, determined that mishap was due to a series of propellant leaks and fires. For more, and if you want to check out the video of yesterday's raining debris, check out the link in today's show notes. ♦ Butterflies in the US are in trouble, with their numbers declining rapidly. Taylor Wilson spoke with USA TODAY national correspondent, Elizabeth Weise, to learn more. Taylor Wilson: Beth, always a pleasure. Thanks for hopping on. Elizabeth Weise: Oh, always here to bring moments of joy and happiness into people's lives. Taylor Wilson: Well, let's try to find some joy out of some, I'd say kind of negative news out of the butterfly world. How severe, Beth, has this butterfly decline got in in recent years, just what are the numbers there? Elizabeth Weise: It's down 22% across the board from 2000 to 2020. So 22% is a lot. In some species, it was much higher. Some species, it was much lower. There's only one species that really did a lot better, but it's an odd one up in the northwest that kind of has peaks and valleys, and it happened to hit a peak and then a valley. So yeah, 22% across the country. Taylor Wilson: Wow. So like so much that we talk about, Beth, is climate really at the heart of all this? Elizabeth Weise: For butterflies, it's three things. It's lack of habitat. I mean, we're just increasingly building on wildland, we're growing crops on wildland, and there's just less place for butterflies to live. It is climate change, especially in the southwest because they can be pretty sensitive to heat. I mean, not that heat kills them, it's just that their preferred food might not grow as well if it's warmer, or it might be growing at the wrong time for the butterflies when they need it. And then also, increased pesticide use, because when butterflies eat things that have, well, insecticide on them, it can kill them as well. Taylor Wilson: All right. So beyond just being kind of nice to look at, nice to have in the back garden, why are butterflies such an important part of nature? Why are scientists really so concerned about this? Elizabeth Weise: There's two reasons. So first off, butterflies are just important in and of themselves. They're actually, surprisingly, and I did not know this, they're really important in helping to pollinate, for example, the cotton crop in Texas, butterflies and certain types of flies. So, they're pollinators, they're beautiful, of course, but they also exist as a food source for a lot of birds. And so when we have fewer butterflies, we have less food for the birds. But it's also true that butterflies are a harbinger of what's happening to insects more broadly. And it was interesting, 'cause when I talked to one of the guys who'd done this research, he said, "We've got really good data on butterflies." And partly, it's 'cause people love butterflies, 'cause who doesn't? But they're also really easy to count, because you can see them and you know what you're looking at and you're like, "Oh, look, there's a monarch. Oh look, there's a tiger." When you are counting other insects, it's really hard. Like he said, I used to count wasps and you had to capture them and take them back to the laboratory and look at them under a microscope to identify them. So, butterfly decreases are kind of a proxy for other insects. And insects are insanely important. They are the pollinators, right? All these plants that we depend on to eat and survive evolved to be pollinated by insects, and the insects are dying off and that's not good. Taylor Wilson: In terms of potential fixes here, Beth, and we're talking about big, broad issues, is there anything that we can do, anything on the horizon to kind of reverse these trends? Elizabeth Weise: There are, and the good news for butterflies especially is that they reproduce really fast. So if you give them more habitat, they will often rebound pretty quickly. Simple things like it's possible that you can limit the amount of pesticides that farmers are using perhaps in a certain portion of the butterfly's lifespan, and that could increase things. The other thing is that it doesn't take a lot of land for butterflies to do well. And so, some researchers at Tufts had good data showing that even just allowing your backyard to be kind of an oasis for these pollinators can be really helpful. And that's as simple as planting a couple of native plants in your garden so that there are things that your local butterfly species like to eat, using less or no insecticides, having a diverse group of plants, and letting some areas get a little wild so they have some place to nest and have a habitat. And then, and this depends on how your HOA or your neighbors like or don't like this, but if you could leave a little bit of your lawn to grow into like a more meadow-like area, that's the sort of habitat that butterflies really love. And they really can rebound, at least locally, and every little bit helps. Taylor Wilson: All right. Elizabeth Weise is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Thanks, Beth. Elizabeth Weise: As always, a pleasure. ♦ Cody Godwin: Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. Were produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaylee Monahan. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
