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Washington Post
9 hours ago
- General
- Washington Post
RFK Jr.'s imprint on covid vaccines and public health
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s skepticism of vaccines and mainstream medicine is making waves in the agency he oversees. Host Colby Itkowitz talks with The Post's national health reporter Lena Sun and health and science accountability reporter Lauren Weber about how Kennedy's recent vaccine announcement and his 'Make America Healthy Again' movement are shaping health policy for all Americans. Today's show was produced by Laura Benshoff with help from Elana Gordon. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks also to Leonard Bernstein. Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Fox News
19 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
Trump blasts 'nasty' question from Oval Office reporter on whether he always 'chickens out' on tariffs
President Donald Trump ripped a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday for asking a "nasty question" about his tariff deals. "Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They're saying, 'Trump Always Chickens Out' - on your tariff threats. And that's why markets are higher this week. What's your response to that?" CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked during a brief gaggle. "Oh, isn't that nice. 'Chicken out.' I've never heard that," Trump responded. "You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100 and then down to another number? I said, 'You have to open your whole country.'" He went on, "And because I gave the European Union a 50% tariff? And they called up, and they said, 'Please, let's meet right now.' And I said, 'Okay, I'll give you until June.' I actually asked them, I said, 'What's the date?' Because they weren't willing to meet. And after I did what I did, they said, 'We'll meet anytime you want.' And we have an end date of July 9. You call that chickening out? Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing when Biden didn't have practically anything." Trump contrasted the situation with the Biden administration, saying the U.S. was "stone-cold dead" six months ago. "We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that? It's called negotiation," Trump said. Trump said lowering the number was part of an ongoing "negotiation" with China and attacked the question. "Don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. To me, that's the nastiest question," Trump said before calling another reporter. Casella later reported on the event while appearing on CNBC's "The Exchange." "He did not like this question, I can tell you," Casella said. She also joked that the "nasty" jab was a "badge of honor" of sorts. After announcing several widespread tariffs in April, the Trump administration announced a pause on all tariffs except China until July to negotiate better deals. Earlier this month, Trump agreed to a temporary reduction of China's tariff rates from 145% to approximately 30% as negotiations continued.
Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Denies He Is ‘Chickening Out' on Tariffs
Trump said his strategy involves setting a 'ridiculous high number' before negotiating it down in exchange for concessions. 'You call that chickening out,' he said in the Oval Office, adding 'it's called negotiation.' Some on Wall Street and elsewhere have said Trump's tendency to announce tough policies only to backtrack is growing predictable. They refer to the market's reaction as the 'TACO trade.' As in, 'Trump Always Chickens Out.' Read more:
The National
a day ago
- Business
- The National
Donald Trump's rocket man is coming back down to earth with a bump
I'm talking of course about the Trump-Musk bromance, which never flourished more than at the height of the last US presidential election campaign. In fact, for a while it seemed Elon Musk had become a sort of de facto US vice-president in waiting. He was everywhere, both during the campaign and in the early days of the administration. Be it in the Oval Office, Air Force One or cabinet meetings, there was no Donald Trump without Musk by his side. But all that it seems has now changed, albeit not with a bang or whimper but with a strange fading away. Musk now is barely referenced by Trump or his White House team. If anything the opposite is true. READ MORE: Kneecap axed from TRNSMT over 'police concerns' Musk's heavy criticism this week of the administration's latest spending proposal – Trump has dubbed one 'big, beautiful bill' – is a case in point. But there are other gripes too between the billionaire and the president as well. For example, back in the day of election promises, Trump and Musk promised US taxpayers big savings, maybe even a 'Doge dividend' payoff when the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency was let loose on the federal government with Musk at its helm. That as we now know has not come to pass and in fact far from achieving its touted $2 trillion savings, Doge looks likely to end up costing the American taxpayer an additional $135 billion this year. As for actual federal spending, this has risen to $154bn, more than in the same period in 2024 during the administration of former president Joe Biden. As one top Trump ally quoted by Politico magazine recently put it candidly about Musk and Doge: 'We got too close to the fence. We mowed too far ... We just adjust. That's the process that's going on'. The bottom line here is that in Trump world, there is no time wasting when it comes to dumping overboard anybody who has out-served their usefulness. As Gideon Lichfield, former editor of the technology and political magazine Wired, recently observed, 'clashing with the president on tariffs, alienating members of the cabinet, and failing to swing a state judicial race despite pouring $25 million into it may have made Musk something of a liability'. As Lichfield also observed, when viewed from Musk's perspective, getting in tow with Trump and Doge might have seemed like a great way of using an insider position to 'win contracts, gain intel on competitors, and shoulder pesky regulators out of his companies way'. READ MORE: Andrew Tate and brother Tristan both charged with rape by UK police But in the end, even though Musk did gain substantially in financial and contractual terms, when offset against the potential losses that might result from sticking with Trump, meant both men would almost certainly come to a crossroads and have different priorities and trajectories. While Trump's own polls so far are not in themselves good, Musk's have revealed him to be a lightning rod in national politics and deeply unpopular with the public. During his re-election bid, Trump saw Musk as someone needed to help fill the campaign war chest and used the tech giant's global online platforms to gain influence and shape public opinion. How interesting now then that Trump is no longer using Musk's name to bring in money. Since early March mentions of Musk in fundraising appeals have stopped abruptly compared with near-daily mentions just a month before. 'He's finished, done, gone. He polls terrible. People hate him,' said one GOP operative who was granted anonymity to speak frankly to Politico magazine. 'He'd go to Wisconsin thinking he can buy people's votes, wear the cheese hat, act like a nine-year-old ... It doesn't work. It's offensive to people,' the official was quoted as saying, showing just how much Musk appears to have fallen out of favour. But as Musk sees it however, Doge has simply become the 'whipping boy for everything'. Then again too there is also the sense that the world's richest man wants to get back to doing what he thinks he does best – making money. Musk though has always been his own worst enemy, and like many I have little sympathy for the reputational hit his companies took when he has been more than happy to flaunt his neo-Nazi sympathies these past months. 'People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That's really uncool,' poor old Elon bleated recently in an interview with The Washington Post. But as Edward Luce, US national editor of the Financial Times pointed out, Musk seemed almost oblivious to the fact that the 'London spoof advertising campaign that called Tesla a 'Swasticar – from zero to 1939 in three seconds' – came in reaction to his far-right boosterism, not to his war on bureaucracy'. No-one doubts then that Musk's public profile has declined, but that by no means suggests he lacks access to or has clout within the Trump administration. READ MORE: FOI reveals Anas Sarwar failed to raise £5bn welfare cuts with Rachel Reeves Just recently for example, he was among the tech CEOs to join Trump on his Saudi Arabia jaunt shaking hands with other rich folk and leaders. Doubtless also Trump will call on him again should he be needed, and Musk, like the president, will always have one eye on the potential profits. It's a pretty fair bet for example that Musk will not want to cut off his nose to spite his face given that his SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part of Trump's 'Golden Dome' missile defence shield as reports suggest. Musk's net worth is said to have fallen by about $130bn since Trump came back to the White House. But now that the president's feet are well and truly ensconced beneath the 'Resolute Desk' of the Oval Office, Musk for now has put away his chainsaw and gone back to being a 'rocket man'. But even here things are not going well, given that last Tuesday Musk's SpaceX's Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built came a cropper while coming down during a test flight. Musk then is back down to earth with a bump and the bromance is on hold. As I said at the start though, I won't deny a certain perverse pleasure in watching the slow breakup of both.
CNN
a day ago
- Business
- CNN
In Trump's telling, a resolution in Ukraine is always two weeks away
It's been a long two weeks. Since at least the end of April, President Donald Trump has been telling reporters he will decide what to do in Ukraine in two weeks, using the timeframe over and over to suggest he is close to a final assessment on how to proceed. It is not a new tactic. Trump has been setting two-week deadlines since at least the start of his first term in 2017 — for policy plans, long-awaited decisions or unspecified major announcements. Many never arrived. Now, as Trump faces a decision on whether to apply new sanctions on Moscow or to walk away altogether from efforts to broker peace, he again says it will take a fortnight to determine whether his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is serious about ending the war in Ukraine. 'We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently,' Trump said Wednesday when questioned in the Oval Office about Putin's intentions. 'But it'll take about a week and a half, two weeks.' Trump did not say what, exactly, he was waiting to learn in the next two weeks that would cause him to finalize his assessment of the Russian leader. Nor did he say exactly what he was prepared to do when the deadline was up. How to end the seemingly intractable war in Ukraine has become one of the major conundrum's of Trump's presidency. To his deep frustration, the conflict has proved more difficult to resolve than he expected. As far back as April 24, Trump suggested a reporter follow up – in two weeks – with their question about continued military assistance in Ukraine. 'Let's see what happens,' he said. 'You can ask that question in two weeks, and we'll see.' Three days later, it was as if no time had passed. 'We'll let you know in about two weeks,' he told a reporter that day who asked whether he trusted the Russian president. As it turned out, Wednesday was exactly two weeks from another of Trump's assertions, on May 14, that he would soon provide an update on whether Putin was 'tapping him along.' 'I'll let you know in a week,' he told reporters on Air Force One. 'I'll let you know in a few days.' About a week after that, on May 19, he said it would take another two weeks to determine whether Ukraine was doing enough to end the conflict. 'I'd rather tell you in about two weeks from now because I can't say yes or no,' he said. Trump and his team have been exasperated over the last week waiting for Moscow to produce a memorandum laying out its position on potential peace talks. The Kremlin said Wednesday the document was finished, and that it would present it to Ukraine during a round of talks in Istanbul next week. But there was little to indicate any new breakthroughs were imminent in ending the conflict. The plodding pace of talks has led Trump to worry Putin could be dragging things out. Yet the US president has, so far, stopped short of imposing sanctions or taking other action. He acknowledged this week there was more he could do. 'What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'He's playing with fire!' Even as Trump continues to mull new sanctions on Moscow, potentially targeting the banking or energy sectors, he voiced concern new measures could push Putin away from talks. 'If I think I'm close to getting a deal, I don't want to screw it up by doing that,' he said Wednesday, suggesting he remains undecided on whether to move ahead with the various options his team has drawn up. He has also weighed walking away altogether from his attempts to mediate the war if it appears the two sides' differences cannot be bridged. His top lieutenants have said at various points over the last month that time is growing short for any American role in ending the war. 'I think this is going to be a very critical week. This week is going to be really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio told an NBC interviewer on April 27. If a determination was made the following week, it wasn't made public. Instead, Trump has tried to keep his options open while still attempting to distance himself from the war. After speaking with Putin by telephone last week, he said it would be up to Ukraine and Russia to resolve their differences. He told European leaders the same day he would not join them in applying new sanctions – at least for now. And he said in his view, Putin believed he was winning the war. Yet by the following Sunday, he'd grown frustrated again with the Russian leader, who had launched the biggest aerial assault of the 3-year war on multiple Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv. 'I don't know what the hell happened to Putin,' Trump bemoaned, claiming his counterpart had changed over time. In fact, a changed Putin is precisely what many European leaders have been warning Trump of for months, even before he returned to office. In December, as Trump visited Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, French President Emmanuel Macron tried telling him the Russian leader he got to know during his first term in office was not the same man. He hadn't appeared to internalize the warnings until this week, when he deemed Putin had gone 'absolutely CRAZY.' On Wednesday, he insisted his forceful new tone was itself a strong rebuke of Moscow, even absent new sanctions. 'The words speak pretty loud,' he insisted. 'We're not happy about that situation.' But when asked whether he still believed Putin wanted the war to end, he said he would need more time. 'I can't tell you that,' he said, 'but I'll let you know in about two weeks.'
