Trump rolls back more tariffs as ‘Liberation Day’ plans face scrutiny: Live

President Donald Trump entered the arena with Kai Trump, Dana White, and Congressman Byron Donalds, among others.

Also seated near him in addition to those who flew down from Palm Beach, were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr and his wife, Cheryl Hines.

President Trump also shook hands with Joe Rogan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports (who has been critical of the administration in recent weeks).

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared on Lara Trump’s Fox News show this evening to assure Americans that President Donald Trump is in the driving seat on trade negotiations and tariffs.

Lutnick went on to say that the president will personally participate in negotiations with the top 10 or 15 most important countries “because he can understand their economies the best…”

A staggering 36,000 people protested Donald Trump’s administration in Los Angeles Saturday, at the largest rally to date of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour

In fiery remarks, the New Yorker laid into the president, accusing him of “manipulating the markets” for his billionaire friends with his “tariff shuffle” this week, in which Trump pulled a dramatic U-turn on the implementation of his trade war against U.S. commercial partners and allies.

Taking to the stage at Gloria Molina Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles, Sanders noted that the crowd went back half a mile, before saying that Musk had said most of the people attending these rallies were paid organizers. He asked the crowd: “Anybody here get paid to come today?”

The question was met with a resounding: “No!”

Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal flamed Donald Trump in yet another critical editorial, this time accusing him of “making it up as he goes,” with his tariff decisions hurting the United States and its allies.

“You almost have to smile” when the president claims the shuddering economy is “all going according to plan,” scoffed the editorial Thursday.

The “reality is that Mr. Trump is making it up as he goes, and it would help if he had an actual strategy to deal with China,” the newspaper added.

Mary Papenfuss has the story.

On his 23-minute flight from Palm Beach to Miami for the UFC fight this evening, President Donald Trump came back to the press cabin to speak with reporters for about three minutes on Iran talks, Russia talks, the Texas Senate primary, and tariff exemptions.

“So we’re going to the fight. We have lots of fights going around the world, and I think we have a lot of good news coming soon about some of those fights, and we’ll see how it goes. But it’s been a, it’s been an interesting weekend. I think we have some pretty good news coming on some of the conflicts.”

On the talks this weekend with Iran in Oman, the president said: “I think they’re going OK. Nothing matters until you get it done. So I don’t like talking about it.”

On talks with Russia about ending its war on Ukraine, Trump said: “I think Ukraine-Russia might be going OK. And you’re going to be finding out pretty soon. There’s a point at which you have to either put up or shut up. We’ll see what happens, but I think it’s going fine.”

Asked about tariff exemptions for electronics and the possibility of upcoming semiconductor tariffs, the president said: “I’ll give you that answer on Monday. We’ll be very specific. But we’re taking in a lot of money. As a country, we’re taking in a lot of money.”

And on the Texas Senate primary between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn, Trump said: “They’re both friends of mine. They’re both good men. And I don’t know. We don’t know who else is running, but these two— Ken, John —they’re both friends of mine. So I’ll make a determination at the right time.”

In a response to a separate question, the president noted that inflation is down and immigration numbers are down at the border.

Courtesy of tonight’s Out of Town pool reporter Brett Samuels of The Hill

Josh Marcus reports from San Francisco.

President Donald Trump is currently flying down to Miami from Palm Beach to attend UFC Fight 314.

The president is being joined by, among others, Elon Musk, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and communications director Steven Cheung.

He will return to Mar-a-Lago after the fight and is scheduled to be back by 1 a.m.

In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic dictatorship, has overthrown the United States, establishing a society where women are stripped of their rights and forced into reproductive servitude, while men hold all power and authority. While the US is not quite there yet, the dystopian parallels between the series and real life sharpen every day. The Trump administration is one obsessed with a “fertility crisis”, often pitting women against each other. Many leading figures in the administration repeatedly use rhetoric that reduces women to their biological functions as child bearers.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the 36,000-strong “Fighting Oligarchy” crowd in Los Angeles today: “Oligarchy or Democracy… but we cannot have both.”

She continued: “Los Angeles, I’ve made my choice. We must fight the oligarchy that has created this nightmare. That is why I have never taken money from lobbyists or corporations and it’s why I never will.”

Mexico’s inability to maintain its water deliveries sparked a diplomatic dispute with its largest trading partner at a sensitive time in relations between the two countries amid Trump’s escalating trade war with the U.S. neighbor.