Special elections to give voters’ verdicts on Trump’s chaotic first months – US politics live

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As Donald Trump prepared to unveil a swathe of reciprocal tariffs, global markets braced and some Republican senators voiced their opposition to a strategy that critics warn risks a global trade war, provoking retaliation by major trading partners such as China, Canada and the European Union.

The US president said on Monday he would be “very kind” to trading partners when he unveils further tariffs this week, potentially as early as Tuesday night.

The Republican billionaire insists that reciprocal action is needed because the world’s biggest economy has been “ripped off by every country in the world”, promising “Liberation Day” for the US.

He could also unveil more sector-specific levies.

Asked for details, he told reporters on Monday: “You’re going to see in two days, which is maybe tomorrow night or probably Wednesday.”

But he added: “We’re going to be very nice, relatively speaking, we’re going to be very kind.”

Trump aides draft proposal for at least 20% tariffs on most imports to US, Washington Post reports

White House aides have drafted a proposal to impose tariffs of about 20% on most imports to the United States, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s team is mulling using trillions of dollars in new import revenue for a tax dividend or refund, the report said, citing sources.

Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections faced its first legal challenges Monday as the Democratic National Committee and a pair of nonprofits filed two separate lawsuits calling it unconstitutional.

The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund brought the first lawsuit Monday afternoon. The DNC, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders followed soon after with a complaint of their own.

Both lawsuits filed in the US district court for the District of Columbia ask the court to block Trump’s order and declare it illegal.

“The president’s executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the DC-based Campaign Legal Center.

“It is simply not within the president’s authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Control of the Wisconsin supreme court at stake in race that broke records for spending

Majority control of the Wisconsin supreme court will be decided Tuesday in a race that broke records for spending and has become a proxy battle for the nation’s political fights, pitting a candidate backed by President Donald Trump against a Democratic-aligned challenger.

Republicans including Trump and the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, lined up behind Brad Schimel, a former state attorney general. Democrats like former President Barack Obama and billionaire megadonor George Soros backed Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge who led legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights and to oppose voter ID.

The first major election in the country since November is seen as a litmus test of how voters feel about Trump’s first months back in office and the role played by Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has torn through federal agencies and laid off thousands of workers, AP reported. Musk traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday to make a pitch for Schimel and personally hand out $1m checks to two voters.

On Monday, Trump hinted as to why the outcome of the race was important. The court can decide election-related laws and settle disputes over future election outcomes.

“Wisconsin’s a big state politically, and the supreme court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Winning Wisconsin’s a big deal, so therefore the supreme court choice – it’s a big race.”

Crawford embraced the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates, running ads that highlighted Schimel’s opposition to the procedure. She also attacked Schimel for his ties to Trump and Musk, referring to “Elon Schimel” during a debate.

Oliver Stone to testify at John F Kennedy assassination hearing

Film director Oliver Stone will testify at a US House of Representatives hearing on Tuesday that is considering thousands of pages of documents related to the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy released this month at the direction of President Donald Trump.

Representative Anna Paulina Luna, chair of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said that lawmakers will hear from witnesses about the value of the documents.

“By investigating the newly released JFK files, consulting experts, and tracking down surviving staff of various investigative committees, our task force will get to the bottom of this mystery and share our findings with the American people,” Luna said.

Shortly after taking office for his second term in January Trump signed an executive order directing national intelligence and other officials to quickly come up with a plan for the full and complete release of all records relating to President Kennedy’s assassination.

The archives’ Kennedy assassination collection has more than 6m pages of records, the vast majority of which had been declassified and made public before Trump’s order. Kennedy’s murder has been attributed to lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

Special elections to deliver voters’ verdict on Trump’s chaotic first months

Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with news that several elections today will be a crucial test of the popularity of the chaotic and extremist first two months of Donald Trump’s second term and the clout of his close ally, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who has been tasked with radically reforming the US federal government.

They could also offer a glimmer of hope to Democrats – fresh off a surprise upset win in a local race in Pennsylvania last week – that their divided political party could be seeing a resurgence in its fortunes.

Or, if they fail to land further blows on Republicans, it will be yet another sign that the party is destined for a long period in the wilderness amid historic lows of its popularity in recent polls.

Many eyes are focused on two previously Republican-held congressional seats in Florida, where its sixth and first congressional districts are vacant and up for grabs.

Mike Waltz left to take up a cabinet job for Trump and Matt Gaetz resigned to pursue a failed bid to become attorney general. House Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority over Democrats, 218 to 213, with four seats vacant, in the lower chamber of Congress.

Republican nerves about how tight the House could become were emphasized last week after Trump pulled the nomination of New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be United Nations ambassador – a move widely seen as admitting that marginal Republican districts are at risk of being lost.

It is the old district of Waltz, Trump’s embattled national security adviser, that is most at risk. State senator Randy Fine has lagged behind his Democratic opponent, Josh Weil, in fundraising amid concerns that he could lose the district – though such a defeat is far from certain.

Read my colleague Richard Luscombe’s full report on the elections here:

In other news:

• Trump said Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” when he announces reciprocal tariffs on nearly all US trading partners. Global stock markets were a sea of red on Monday and investors fled to gold amid recession fears.

• The Trump administration has announced a review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University over allegations of antisemitism.

• Senate majority leader John Thune said he believes Donald Trump is “probably messing with you” with his remarks on Sunday that there are “methods” by which he could run for a third term.

• A coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block portions of Donald Trump’s executive order that would require voters to prove their citizenship in order to vote.

• Trump took aim at ticket scalping in a new executive order signed today, which directs the Department of Justice and the FTC to crack down on ticket resellers who price-gouge.

• Tens of millions of dollars is being withheld for Planned Parenthood chapters across the US in an attempt by the Trump administration to force the clinics to change their operations.

• A federal judge has put the Trump administration plans to deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants on pause, ruling Monday that protections struck down by officials should be reinstated while lawsuits continue.