Trump expected to announce $100b Taiwanese chipmaker investment – live | Trump administration

Key events

Oliver Holmes

The UN human rights chief has warned of a “fundamental shift” in the US and sounded the alarm over the growing power of “unelected tech oligarchs”.

In a stinging rebuke of Washington weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency, Volker Türk said there had been bipartisan support for human rights in the US for decades but said he was “now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally”.

Without referring to Trump by name, Türk, an Austrian lawyer who heads the UN’s rights body, criticised the Republican president’s measures to overturn longstanding equity and anti-discrimination policies, as well as repeated threats against the media and politicians.

“In a paradoxical mirror image, policies intended to protect people from discrimination are now labelled as discriminatory. Progress is being rolled back on gender equality,” Türk said in comments to the UN human rights council in Geneva.

“Disinformation, intimidation and threats, notably against journalists and public officials, risk undermining the work of independent media and the functioning of institutions,” he added. “Divisive rhetoric is being used to distort, deceive and polarise. This is generating fear and anxiety among many.”

Share

Zelenskyy says Ukraine ‘very much hopes’ for US support

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has issued a statement saying that Kyiv “very much hopes(s) on US support on the path to peace”.

“We continue our work with partners. We have already had talks and other steps to come soon,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible.

We need real peace and Ukrainians want it most because the war ruins our cities and towns. We lose our people. We need to stop the war and to guarantee security.

We are working together with America and our European partners and very much hope on US support on the path to peace. Peace is needed as soon as possible.

Share

Here’s more from commerce secretary Howard Lutnick’s CNN interview earlier today, during which he said Donald Trump does not want Volodymyr Zelenskyy to step down as Ukraine’s president.

No, he’s not weighing into Ukrainian politics,” Lutnick replied when asked if Trump wants Zelenskyy to resign.

“What he wants is to be a peace maker,” he added.

Trump is going to “consider what to do and how to respond”, he said, adding:

(He) is going to figure out what are the tools that he can use on Russia, and what are the tools that he can use on Ukraine, to get them to the table.

Share

The day so far

Donald Trump appears ready to impose tariffs on two of the United States’s biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, but unanswered questions remain. In recent interviews, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said they may not be the 25% duty initially proposed, while also crediting both countries with making progress on stopping migrants from entering the US. Meanwhile, Trump has kept up his feud with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing him of not “wanting there to be peace”, days after a disastrous Oval Office argument. The president is presumably busy getting ready for tomorrow evening, when he will make his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House, and has promised to “tell it like it is”.

Here’s what else is going on today:

A top economic thinktank warned that US tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would amount to “the largest tax increase in at least a generation”. The Treasury secretary disagrees.

Robert F Kennedy Jr is known for doubting the well-established efficacy of vaccines, but suggested they may be the best way to fight the Texas measles epidemic.

Trump suggested that protesters at Republican lawmakers’ town halls were “paid”, but provided no evidence.

Share

Joan E Greve

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke to his UK counterpart, foreign secretary David Lammy, today to discuss the leaders’ summit on Ukraine that took place over the weekend.

“The secretary thanked Foreign Secretary Lammy for the UK’s role in encouraging Europe to provide for its own defense and push for peace in Ukraine,” Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for the state department, said in a statement.

“The secretary confirmed the United States is ready to negotiate to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict and will continue working with the UK towards peace in Ukraine.”

Yesterday, Rubio chided the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his attitude toward Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, even as the US president attracted widespread criticism for his own behavior during the meeting.

“What Zelensky did, unfortunately, is that he found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue,” Rubio told ABC News.

Share

Trump says Zelenskyy ‘doesn’t want there to be peace’

Donald Trump has again attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after the Ukrainian president said an end to his country’s war with Russia “is still very, very far away”.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump seized on the comment to accuse the Ukrainian leader of not being interested in negotiating a peace agreement:

This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?

The US president’s statement comes days after a testy exchange in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy that rattled America’s allies and raised fears that Washington was ready to side with Russia. It’s also worth noting that in his Truth Social post, Trump cited the Associated Press’s reporting on Zelenskyy’s comments – an ironic choice, because he banned the outlet from the Oval Office.

Here’s more on the increasingly fractious US-Ukraine relationship:

Share

Vaccine skeptic RFK Jr notes importance of vaccines in fighting Texas measles epidemic

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health and human services secretary who before getting the job was best known for his anti-vaccine views, has written an op-ed noting the importance of inoculations in fighting measles, which has broken out in parts of Texas.

“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote in the piece published by Fox News.

Kennedy initially downplayed the outbreak of measles, before reversing course and saying the issue is a “top priority” for his department:

Share

Commerce secretary says Canada, Mexico made progress against migrants, but more to be done on fentanyl

Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told CNN in an interview this morning that Canada and Mexico are “doing a good job” of stemming the flow of migrants into the United States, but Donald Trump wants to see more action on curbing fentanyl trafficking.

The comments come as the Trump administration threatens to impose tariffs on the two US trading partners beginning at midnight. Trump has accused Canada and Mexico of not doing enough to stop undocumented migrants and illegal drugs from crossing into the United States, sending both governments scrambling to head off the economically damaging import duties.

It’s unclear if Lutnick’s comments indicate that Trump is considering yet another last-minute reprieve for the two countries, after delaying previous rounds of tariffs:

Share

Canada’s CBC reports that the Trump administration has not yet told Ottawa that tariffs will be imposed, raising the question of yet another last-minute reprieve for the top US trading partner.

While there’s no requirement that the US notify Canada before impsoing levies, they have done so in the past, CBC says.

Share

The Guardian’s Robert Tait reports that Democrats have also invited federal workers who lost their jobs at the hands of Elon Musk to attend Donald Trump’s address to tomorrow’s joint session of Congress:

Workers fired in Donald Trump’s mass purge of the federal government will attend his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday at the invitation of Democrats seeking to display the human costs of the president’s radical policies.

Senior Democrats, including the party’s leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, have invited laid-off military veterans as their guests in an attempt to embarrass Trump over the unbridled assault on the federal bureaucracy spearheaded by Elon Musk and his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) team.

In moves supposedly aimed at rooting out waste and corruption, Musk – the billionaire tech entrepreneur who has emerged as a central figure in Trump’s administration – has shuttered USAid and laid off at least 200,000 workers in multiple other agencies.

Share

In the weeks since Donald Trump took office, Republican lawmakers holding town halls in their districts have faced constituents angry about his administration’s actions.

In a post on Truth Social, the president has accused the constituents of being “paid” by Democrats:

Paid “troublemakers” are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings. It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!

Trump offered no evidence, as he often does. Meanwhile, the backlash to his presidency does seem real, though how long it will last or if it will translate to improved fortunes for the beleaguered Democrats remains to be seen:

Share

Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has backed changing the methodology behind a key economic statistic in a way that could obscure the disruptions of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, the Associated Press reports:

Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, said on Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by the billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) could possibly cause an economic downturn.

“You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.”

Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can affect the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.

Musk’s efforts to downsize federal agencies could result in the layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, whose lost income could potentially reduce their spending, affecting businesses and the economy at large.

The commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Musk’s arguments made on Friday on X that government spending doesn’t create value for the economy.

“A more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending,” Musk wrote on his social media platform. “Otherwise, you can scale GDP artificially high by spending money on things that don’t make people’s lives better.”

Share

Democrats can do little but sit and watch Donald Trump’s speech to Congress tomorrow, after losing control of the Senate and failing to win back the House of Representatives in last November’s election.

But they’ll do their best to steer public anger towards the president’s policies, including his proposal for deep cuts to Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for poor and disabled Americans. Democratic senator Andy Kim told CNN he will bring as a guest to the speech a constituent who relies on the program:

I will bring, as my guest, someone from … my home county that has disabilities. Someone who is dependent upon Medicaid for so much of his ability to survive. And I really think that that’s where we need to hone in on. You know, I really do think that what we see with this reconciliation bill is disastrous for the Republicans ahead. And we have to show the American people the damage and the harm to them. And I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get that message out there

Share