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Democratic governors hit back at Trump order blocking state climate policies
In a joint statement, the Democratic governors of New York and New Mexico, Kathy Hochul and Michelle Lujan Grisham, who co-chair the US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 state governors committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, responded to the order targeting state authority.
The federal government cannot unilaterally strip states’ independent constitutional authority.
We are a nation of states – and laws – and we will not be deterred. We will keep advancing solutions to the climate crisis that safeguard Americans’ fundamental right to clean air and water, create good-paying jobs, grow the clean energy economy, and make our future healthier and safer.
Key events
Senator introduces conflict of interest bill aimed at Elon Musk
Nick Robins-Early
A Democratic senator has introduced a bill that would prohibit awarding government contracts and grants to companies owned by special government employees, taking aim at Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO.
The bill, authored by Jeanne Shaheen, the longtime Democratic New Hampshire senator, is an attempt to prevent conflicts of interest and was crafted in response to Musk’s role in the White House, where Donald Trump has designated him a special government employee, according to a Senate aide. Special government employees, which also include many members of Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), serve a limit of 130 days and are exempt from some financial disclosure rules.
Shaheen told the Guardian:
Those who step up to serve our country should do so because they want to contribute to the betterment of our nation – not because they stand to benefit from their public service at the expense of taxpayers.
Democrats and ethics watchdog groups have frequently objected to Musk’s numerous conflicts as he serves as the de facto head of Doge and a senior adviser to the president. Musk’s companies, most notably SpaceX and the satellite communications service Starlink, have extensive and expanding ties with government agencies as well as contracts worth billions of dollars.
As Musk and his team have rapidly moved to dismantle entire federal agencies and cut government services in recent months, former government employees have also warned that the world’s richest person is laying groundwork for his own private companies to further entrench themselves.
And beyond his contracts with the government, the billionaire’s companies, such as Tesla and Neuralink, are involved in a wide range of regulatory battles and investigations with agencies that Doge and the Trump administration have targeted for cuts.
Federal judges in New York and Texas block deportation of five Venezuelans
Federal judges in New York and Texas have taken legal action to block the government from deporting five Venezuelans under a rarely invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport non-citizens in times of war.
The five men were identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute. Three are being detained in a facility in Texas while another two are being held in a facility in Orange county, New York, the Associated Press reports.
One man in Texas is HIV positive and fears lacking access to medical care if deported.
The men were identified as gang members by physical attributes using the “Alien Enemy Validation Guide”, in which an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent tallies points by relying on tattoos, hand gestures, symbols, logos, graffiti and manner of dress, according to the ACLU. Experts who study the gang have told the ACLU the method is not reliable.
The ACLU had requested a temporary restraining order to keep their petitioners in the US and for the judge to declare the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration is invoking, unlawful.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has warned a US recession seems increasingly likely as Donald Trump’s tariffs rattle financial markets.
Stocks and bonds plummeted in morning trading, with stock futures dropping and bond yields rising as concerns over economic stability continue to grow.
Dimon, speaking on Fox Business, said a 2,000-point drop in the Dow “feeds on itself”, leading people to feel the pinch in their 401(k)s and pensions, prompting them to cut back.
Dimon said on Fox Business’s Mornings With Maria show:
I think probably [a recession is] a likely outcome, because markets, I mean, when you see a 2,000-point decline [in the Dow Jones industrial average], it sort of feeds on itself, doesn’t it.
“It makes you feel like you’re losing money in your 401(k), you’re losing money in your pension. You’ve got to cut back,” he added.
With the trade war showing no signs of easing, recession fears are mounting on Wall Street as the uncertainty deepens.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has informed all foreign nationals working for the agency that they will be fired by mid-August.
An internal email seen by multiple outlets, including CNN and the Washington Post, reads:
A planned global Reduction in Force (RIF) will affect all USAID Foreign Service National positions with final separation dates no later than August 15, 2025.
Foreign service nationals make up more than 40% of the USAID workforce, about 5,000 people across 80 countries worldwide.
Trump urges Americans to ‘be cool’ as tariffs take effect
Donald Trump sought to project calm this morning as his sweeping tariffs took effect.
“BE COOL!” the president posted on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!
In a follow-up post, he argued that it was a “GREAT TIME TO BUY!!”
Here is the clip of Donald Trump insisting “I know what the hell I’m doing” by imposing sweeping tariffs and boasting that world leaders are “kissing my ass” as they try to negotiate trade deals.
He was speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual fundraising dinner in Washington last night.
My colleague David Smith reports that even Republicans, unswervingly loyal on other issues, are increasingly uneasy about Trump’s sweeping tariff strategy. Several senators have signed on to a bipartisan bill that would require presidents to justify new tariffs to Congress. Don Bacon of Nebraska has said he will introduce a House version of the bill, saying that Congress needs to restore its powers over tariffs.
But Trump lashed out at the dissenters on Tuesday night:
I see some rebel Republican, some guy who wants to grandstand, say, ‘I think that Congress should take over negotiations.’ Let me tell you, you don’t negotiate like I negotiate.
I just saw it today, a couple of your congressmen, sir. ‘I think we should get involved in the negotiation of the tariffs.’ Oh that’s what I need, I need some guy telling me how to negotiate.
David’s full report is here:
Trump expected to sign executive order on US shipbuilding – report
Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order potentially on Wednesday aimed at reinvigorating US shipbuilding and reducing China’s grip on the global shipping industry, three sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Republican and Democratic US lawmakers for years have warned about China’s growing dominance on the seas and diminishing US naval readiness.
Among the proposals, the US is planning to charge fees for docking at US ports on any ship that is part of a fleet that includes Chinese-built or Chinese-flagged vessels and will push allies to act similarly or face retaliation, according to the draft text of the executive order seen by Reuters.
Trump could sign the executive order on Wednesday and the final text had been revised, said the sources, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The White House declined to comment.
Chinese shipbuilders account for more than 50% of all merchant vessel cargo capacity produced globally each year, up from just 5% in 1999, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
That gain came at the expense of shipbuilders in Japan and South Korea. US shipbuilding peaked in the 1970s and now accounts for a sliver of the industry output.
The US shipbuilding industry has struggled due to high costs and a complex regulatory structure, which has enabled rivals like China to grow rapidly.
China issues risk alert for tourists travelling to US
China on Wednesday issued a risk alert for Chinese tourists travelling to the US, according to a statement from the culture and tourism ministry seen by Reuters.
The ministry said it reminded Chinese tourists to assess the risks of travelling to the US and travel with caution, citing recent “deterioration of China-US economic and trade relations and the domestic security situation in the US”.
Swiss president says she has spoken to Trump and ‘looks forward to reaching solution soon’
Switzerland’s president, Karin Keller-Sutter, said on Wednesday she had spoken to Donald Trump by telephone about trade and that she was looking forward to working out solutions in the very near future.
“In today’s phone call with President Donald Trump I conveyed both Switzerland’s stance on bilateral trade, and ways to address US ambitions,” she said on X. “We agreed to continue talks in the interest of both our countries. Looking forward to working out solutions in the very near future.”
The government has expressed concern about the potential impact of Trump’s tariffs on key Swiss industries, including chocolate, watches, cheese and coffee capsules after Trump hit Switzerland with a hefty – and disproportionate – 31% tariff rate, compared with 20% slapped on the EU and 10% on the UK.
Reuters notes that Switzerland, which abolished industrial tariffs last year, has an economy heavily oriented to trading with the rest of the world, and the US is its single biggest export market.
US issues new sanctions on Iran as Trump seeks talks
The US issued fresh sanctions on Iran on Wednesday, the treasury department said, two days after Donald Trump announced the US planned direct talks with Tehran over its nuclear program (which Iran then said would actually be indirect).
The department designated five entities and one person based in Iran for their support of the country’s nuclear program, the treasury said in a statement seen by Reuters, with the aim of denying Iran a nuclear weapon.
The designated groups include the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and its subordinate, Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, the treasury said.
The action comes after Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that the US and Iran were poised to begin direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, but Iran’s foreign minister said the discussions in Oman would be indirect.
In a further sign of the difficult path to any deal between the two geopolitical foes, Trump issued a stark warning that if the talks were unsuccessful, “Iran is going to be in great danger.”
Dharna Noor
And this is from Dharna Noor’s story on Vermont’s “game-changing” Climate Superfund Act, which compels oil companies to pay potentially billions of dollars for climate impacts caused by their emissions (Trump’s order reads: “Vermont similarly extorts energy producers for alleged past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the United States or the globe.”)
In May last year, Vermont became the first state to enact a law holding oil firms financially responsible for climate damages.
Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, the Climate Superfund Act directs the state to charge major fossil fuel companies potentially billions of dollars to pay for climate impacts to which their emissions have contributed.
Under the legislation, Vermont officials will have until January 2026 to assess the total costs to the state from greenhouse gases emitted between 1995 and 2024, including the impacts on public health, biodiversity and economic development. They will then use federal data to determine how much to charge individual polluters for those harms.
Dharna Noor
Here is some more detail from my colleague Dharna Noor’s report from January, which has a lot of useful context for New York and Vermont’s climate actions Trump is upset with.
Weeks after Trump’s election, the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, signed several major climate bills into law. One will force big oil and gas producers to help pay for climate effects to which their emissions have contributed for the next 25 years, similar to a measure Vermont passed months before.
Another new law will ensure schools are built far from from highly polluting roadways, and a third will expand the state’s 10-year-old fracking ban to outlaw the process of injecting liquified carbon dioxide to pull gas from the ground. Days after Trump’s election, Hochul also abruptly resurrected a plan to enact a toll for driving in congested zones, and this month pledged to allocate $1bn to greening the economy.
In response to Trump exiting the US from the Paris climate accords for the second time, Hochul also led a group of two dozen governors, representing nearly 55% of the US population, redoubling commitments to slash planet-warming pollution: “Our states and territories continue to have broad authority under the US constitution to protect our progress and advance the climate solutions we need,” Hochul wrote.
During Trump’s first term, New York also signed an ambitious 2019 mandate to obtain 70% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.
Trump’s order also singled out New York and Vermont. It reads:
Many States have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.
New York, for example, enacted a ‘climate change’ extortion law that seeks to retroactively impose billions in fines (erroneously labelled ‘compensatory payments’) on traditional energy producers for their purported past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions not only in New York but also anywhere in the United States and the world.
Vermont similarly extorts energy producers for alleged past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the United States or the globe.
