The Trump administration says it expects to finish paying over $670 million owed to foreign aid organizations for completed work Friday, but President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have not abandoned their fight to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Companies and nonprofits that work with USAID filed suit demanding the money and have accused the administration of repeatedly defying court orders to release foreign aid funds. The Justice Department, in a court filing this week, also said it anticipates payments owed to organizations not included in the litigation to be completed by April 29. The total owed to all organizations is close to $2 billion, the department said.
Another federal judge ruled Tuesday that efforts by the Trump administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to shutter USAID likely violated the Constitution. Judge Theodore D. Chuang issued a preliminary injunction blocking Musk and DOGE from taking various steps while he considers a final ruling.
The administration has accused the international aid program of fraud, inefficiency and failure to align spending with U.S. interests.
President Donald Trump hinted Friday there could be additional “flexibility” in his tariff regime, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he’s being lobbied for exemptions.
He previously delayed auto tariffs and gave Canada and Mexico some temporary relief.
“People are coming to me and talking about tariffs and a lot of people are asking me if they could have exceptions,” Trump said. “And once you do that for one, you have to do that for all.”
Trump is readying a large slate of tariffs to go into effect April 2, which he nicknamed “Liberation Day,” on countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit.
He said Friday he had not changed his mind about tariffs. Rather, he said, he helped American car companies.
“I didn’t change my mind,” he said. “I don’t change. But the word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there’s flexibility. So, there will be flexibility,” he added.
The president said the tariffs and trade controls would be “reciprocal” so that whatever rate a country charges, the U.S. charges them the equivalent.
“Whatever they do to us, we do to them,” Trump said.
−Francesca Chambers
President Donald Trump said Friday he has decided that the Small Business Administration will handle student loans, taking it out of the Education Department immediately.
“They are all set for it, they are waiting for it. It’ll be serviced much better than it has in the past,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
On Thursday Trump ordered his administration to dismantle the Education Department, looking to achieve a top campaign promise even though the White House acknowledged the agency can’t ‒ and won’t – entirely be dissolved without an act of Congress.
In 2024 student loan debt in the United States totaled $1.777 trillion and was held by 42.7 million borrowers, according to the Education Data Initiative.
−Sarah D. Wire
Wall Street’s main indexes declined Friday as investors continued to navigate the complex landscape of tariffs, with FedEx becoming the latest firm to adjust its annual projections due to economic uncertainties.
FedEx fell 10.9%, while peer UPS lost 3.3%. Delivery firms are often seen as a barometer for the global economy given their involvement in a wide range of industries.
The delivery companies weighed on the Dow Jones Transport Index which is often seen as a gauge of U.S. economic health. The index fell 2.1% and has lost over 19% from its November all-time peak.
Airlines such as Delta and United also dragged the index lower, after Britain’s Heathrow Airport was shut, sparking global travel turmoil.
In an interview, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee noted that the current conditions could “maybe” a shock to the economy.
−Reuters
White House officials are reviewing federal agencies’ downsizing plans, a move expected to result in the mass firing of thousands of government workers within the coming weeks, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
President Donald Trump had given the agencies until March 13 to draw up plans for a second wave of mass layoffs as part of his rapid-fire effort to reshape and reduce the size of the federal government, which he has called bloated and inefficient. All U.S. government agencies have submitted their plans, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
No deadline has been set for completing the review. One of the two sources said the White House would like to see the entire process wrapped up by the end of September. “We’re going to take our time,” the source said.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire whose Department of Government Efficiency is the driving force behind Trump’s downsizing effort, is “being kept abreast” of significant details of the review but is not “combing through every document,” the second source said.
Trump is not involved with the review, which is being led by DOGE, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s human resources arm, that source said.
-Reuters
A tiny federal agency that is the main source of federal funding for libraries and museums could see staff cuts in the next few days, it’s union warns.
AFGE Local 3403, a branch of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement that the Institute of Museum and Library Services received new leadership from the Trump administration Thursday, who arrived with a team of security and staff from the Department of Government Efficiency, the federal advisory agency led by billionaire Elon Musk. Trump ordered the Institute to be significantly reduced in an executive order last Friday, with a plan to do so due by today.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally approved funds to state libraries in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and to library, museum, and archives programs through grants. It serves 35,000 museums and 123,000 libraries across the country, according to its website.
Read more here.
-Sarah D. Wire
Authorities in New York City on Friday appeared poised to ignore the Trump administration-issued deadline for ending “congestion relief” tolls being collected in Lower Manhattan. The toll amount depends on the type of vehicle, time of day and the method of payment, and there are discounts and exemptions for certain drivers or vehicles. The program, which began in January, is designed to ease traffic congestion and pollution while raising funds for mass transit. The city has gone to court to save the program.
“This is not a test of wills,” MTA chief Janno Lieber said Tuesday. “The program, which has had such amazing benefits for New Yorkers, faster travel, cleaner air, fewer crashes, less honking, quieter, better environment for all, and also great economic benefits − all that is going to continue.”
Tariffs can apply to exports but are are primarily levied on imports, typically to protect industries in the country levying them. Tariffs make imports more expensive, thus making local goods cheaper by comparison. Tariffs also can provide income that can be used to support local industries, fund public programs or cover government expenditures.
And they can serve as bargaining tools to win concessions from trading partners.
“While tariffs may seem to penalize foreign producers by making their goods or services less competitive, the reality is that U.S. consumers and businesses ultimately bear the cost,” the Wilson Center scholars Diego Marroquín Bitar and Valeria Moy write in a “Tariffs 101” analysis.
Contributing: Reuters
