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President Donald Trump on Tuesday directed the government to consider possible tariffs on copper, the latest move by the White House to tax a wide array of imports and reshape global trade. It will have a big impact, said Trump before signing the executive order to study copper imports. On a call with reporters, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro portrayed the move as an effort to stop China's build out of its copper sector and to address a broader national security vulnerability. There is also a desire to restore the domestic mining, smelting and refining of copper given potential military and technological needs. Trump has long said his trade goals are to ensure that imports are equal in size to exports, so that the United States doesn't run trade deficits. But America runs a surplus with copper and the administration sees a national security risk from the forecasts of supply and demand. Last year, the United States exported $11.3 billion of copper and imported $9.6 billion
A federal judge in Seattle blocked President Donald Trump's effort to halt the nation's refugee admissions system Tuesday. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by major refugee aid groups, who argued that Trump's executive order suspending the federal refugee resettlement program ran afoul of the system Congress created for moving refugees into the US. Lawyers for the administration argued that Trump's order was well within his authority to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the US would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. US District Judge Jamal Whitehead said in his ruling after the hearing Tuesday that the president's actions amounted to an effective nullification of congressional will in setting up the nation's refugee admissions programme. The president has substantial discretion ... to suspend refugee admissions, Whitehead told the parties. But that authority is not limitless. The plaintiffs include the International Refugee Assistance Project on .
Back on track, Senate Republicans pushed ahead on Wednesday with their USD 340 billion budget bill focused on funding the White House's mass deportations and border security agenda after Vice-President JD Vance gave a green light to proceed despite a morning dust-up caused by President Donald Trump. The package was in jeopardy after Trump publicly bashed the approach from the Senate Budget Committee chairman, Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Trump said he favoured the "big beautiful bill" from House Republicans, a more politically fraught package that includes USD 4.5 trillion in tax cuts but slashes government programmes and services. Senators want to address those priorities later, in a second package. "We are moving forward," said Sen John Barrasso of Wyoming, the GOP whip, after a lunch meeting with Vance at the Capitol. The start-stop process is complicating what's already a heavy legislative lift for Republicans, who have a rare sweep of power with majority control of ...