US updates: Trump orders tariffs break for Mexico, Canada

We're closing this set of live updates as most people in the United States try to get some sleep.

Thank you for reading. 

Bitcoin is often touted as an alternative to the US dollar, the world's reserve currency, as only a limited number of coins will ever be produced. Proponents argue that the cryptocurrency's fixed supply makes it an inflation-proof value store outside the global financial system. 

Proponents say a crypto strategic reserve could help financial stability by diversifying US national reserves beyond traditional assets like gold and foreign currencies.

Such a stockpile would also help legitimize cryptocurrencies, encouraging more financial institutions to hold them. The likes of bitcoin are still viewed by many institutional investors with suspicion due to their price volatility and decentralization.

But some analysts think the value of the stockpile could vanish in a market crash.

DW's Nik Martin weighs the pros and cons.
 

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a national  bitcoin reserve, a day before meeting with executives from the cryptocurrency industry at the White House.

"The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime," said David Sacks, the White House’s crypto and AI policy head.

"It is estimated that the US government owns about 200,000 bitcoin; however, there has never been a complete audit. The E.O. directs a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings," he added.

Trump's moves to support the crypto industry, which spent millions backing him and other Republicans in the November elections, have drawn concern from some conservatives and crypto backers over giveaways to an already wealthy community and delegitimizing the digital currency industry.

Proponents argue that a reserve would help taxpayers benefit from crypto's price growth. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi compared the tariffs imposed on China by the Trump administration to the "law of the jungle" where each country only pursues its own interests.

Wang also warned that China would respond in kind.

"If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results. If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter," he added.

Beijing has previously vowed to fight any trade war with Washington to the end.

President Trump on Thursday again brought up his complaint that the US' NATO allies do not spend enough of their budgets on defense, a common line from his first term in office.

"If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them," he told reporters in the Oval Office.

His previous threats encouraged more spending from European partners, but this time around even that appears to not be enough.

Trump also questioned whether NATO member France or a "couple of others" would come to the US' defense it was attacked, in line with Article 5 of the alliance.

France has encouraged its European neighbors to be less reliant on the US for its own security.

French President Emmanuel Macron responded to Trump's comments by pointing out how European allies, including France, had joined the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11.

"We are loyal and faithful allies," Macron said.

A judge has ruled that Trump's firing of Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was illegal and has ordered that she remain in her job.

"An American president is not a king — not even an 'elected' one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute," said District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, DC.

Howell acknowledged that the Supreme Court may overturn a decision restricting the president's power to remove members from independent bodies.

Government lawyers said the president should have the power to remove people from the NLRB as a matter of "democratic accountability."

Wilcox had been the first black woman to sit on the board in its 90-year history. She was confirmed for her second term in 2023 by the elected members of the Senate.

The NLRB resolves unfair labor practice disputes.

Trump offered certain tariff exemptions for Canadian and Mexican goods covered by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) enacted during his first term.

Trump signed orders paring back the tariffs until April 2, when the president is expected to start unveiling reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations that have imposed their own import taxes on US goods.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico should be spared when reciprocal tariffs go into effect. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country won't relent until all "tariffs are removed."

Donald Trump has said his first trip abroad will likely be to Saudi Arabia. The US president said he wanted to seal an agreement for Riyadh to invest upwards of $1 trillion in the US economy, which would include major purchases of military equipment.

Trump reminded reporters that his first overseas trip of his first term in 2017 was to Saudi Arabia, to announce Saudi investments estimated then to be worth $350 billion.

"This time, they've gotten richer, we've all gotten older," said Trump.

"I have a great relationship with them, and they've been very nice," Trump said.

Trump's Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the Saudis will also host a US-Ukraine meeting next week to discuss a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.

US President Donald Trump said he would soon decide whether to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, Reuters reported.

Such a move would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden's administration.

"We're not looking to hurt anybody, we're certainly not looking to hurt them, and I'm looking at that," Trump told reporters.

"There were some people that think that's appropriate, and some people don't, and I'll be making the decision pretty soon," he added.

The decision would be part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the United States under temporary humanitarian parole programs launched under the Biden administration, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

President Donald Trump said he wants US schools to be run by each of the country's 50 states, as his administration eyes the potential abolishment of the Department of Education.

Trump previously said he wants his secretary for education, Linda McMahon, to "put herself out of a job" and close her department.

Even though McMahon was confirmed by the Senate on Monday, an executive order that would end the Education Department could be signed this week.

McMahon has said it was the department's "final mission" to eliminate bureaucratic bloat and turn over the agency's authority to states.

But eliminating the department altogether would not be easy and would likely require an act of Congress.

Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has already begun cutting dozens of contracts at the Education Department that it dismissed as "woke" and wasteful.

The agency's main role is financial, as it distributes billions in federal money to colleges and schools annually. It also manages the federal student loan portfolio.

The department plays an important regulatory role in services for students, ranging from those with disabilities to low-income and homeless kids.

Trump said on Thursday that he thinks student loans can be handled by the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration or the Commerce Department.

The US House of Representatives censured Democratic member Al Green on Thursday in retaliation for his disruption of  Donald Trump's address to congress the night before.

During the speech, Green stood up and waved his cane to heckle Trump, refusing to sit down despite being warned. He was later removed from the chamber by security.

Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse introduced the resolution to subject Green to a formal reprimand.

"Decorum and order are the institutional grounds for the way we do business in the United States Congress, and the sheer disregard for that standard during President Trump's address by the gentleman from Texas is unacceptable," Newhouse said in a statement.

Prior to the vote, Green told reporters he was happy to "suffer the consequences" of his actions.

"I stood up for those who need Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security," he posted on X. "Democrats will never abandon the fight to make sure every American has a safe, healthy, and financially secure life."

Censure votes on the House floor used to be rare, but, in recent years, they have been used by both parties more frequently, as relationships between members have soured.

In the latest turnaround in President Trump's trade war, he announced that all Canadian and Mexican goods that fall under the  USMCA rules would be exempt from tariffs until April 2.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was signed during Trump's first term in 2018 after he expressed dissatisfaction with the previous North American trade deal, also known as NAFTA.

On Thursday, Trump also said that auto tariffs, delayed yesterday for a month, would not be postponed a second time.

Earlier this week, Trump imposed 25% import duties on goods coming from the US' two neighbors and key trading partners.

Trump's rollercoaster financial maneuvers have sent US stock markets tumbling and business leaders scrambling to keep up.

President Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), should start using a "scalpel" rather than the "hatchet" when it comes to making government cuts.

The statement marks Trump's first public reaction to mounting criticism that DOGE is slashing tens of thousands of government jobs, and putting critical services at risk before it has carried out any real budget assessments. Many of its decisions have already been blocked by courts over questions of legality.

Trump is also convening a cabinet meeting later on Thursday to address concerns from secretaries that Musk is trying to run their departments over their heads.

There has been widespread outrage, also from conservatives, that US-South African tech billionaire Musk is exercising far too much power for someone who is neither an elected official nor a cabinet minister.

 However, Trump also wrote that "DOGE has been an incredible success, and now that we have my Cabinet in place, I have instructed the Secretaries and Leadership to work with DOGE on Cost Cutting measures and Staffing."

US District Court Judge John McConnell in the US state of Rhode Island blocked the White House from freezing federal grants and loans potentially totaling trillions of dollars, saying that only US Congress had the power to do so.

The latest ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states. The court case was launched over the Trump administration's plan for a sweeping pause on federal spending.

McConnell ruled that the executive branch was trying to put itself above Congress and said this "undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government."

"The Executive has not pointed to any constitutional or statutory authority that would allow them to impose this type of categorical freeze," McConnel wrote.

"The Court is not limiting the Executive's discretion or micromanaging the administration of federal funds. Rather, consistent with the Constitution, statutes, and caselaw, the Court is simply holding that the Executive's discretion to impose its own policy preferences on appropriated funds can be exercised only if it is authorized by the congressionally approved appropriations statutes," he added.

The White House did not immediately respond the rulling, but it is expected to appeal the decision.

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said the US and Mexico would continue working together to tackle the illicit opioid fentanyl trade from Mexico into the US.

The Trump administration had pointed to drug trafficking as a key point of contention in negotiations over Washington's 25% tariffs on Mexican imports.

"We had an excellent and respectful call in which we agreed that our work and collaboration have yielded unprecedented results, within the framework of respect for our sovereignties," Sheinbaum said in a post on X.

Sheinbaum said that the two countries would also work to curb the flow of guns from the US to Mexico.