LIVE Video: Trump to give announcement on lowering drug prices
President Trump on Friday announced that the U.S. will impose a 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods after issuing a stark warning over rare earth controls, which prompted the stock market to plummet, earlier in the day.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” Trump posted on Truth Social. The tariffs will go into effect Nov. 1.
The president will give remarks from the Oval Office at 5 p.m. EDT, expected to be about lowering drug prices, but will likely address the new tariff as well as news that federal workers are beginning to be laid off.
Earlier Friday, the White House announced that federal layoffs have begun as the Trump administration has threatened to layoff furloughed workers amid the government shutdown.
The administration offered no specifics on which agencies or how many people would be affected. But here is The Hill’s list of agencies affected so far..
The Senate voted against the House GOP bill to open the government on Thursday, and later left for the Columbus Day weekend. The Senate will not return until Tuesday evening.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rebuffed calls Friday morning to bring the House back to Washington, D.C., telling reporters that lawmakers needed to be at home to assist their constituents amid the government shutdown.
The move comes as Johnson has faced pressure over not recalling lawmakers to vote on military pay amid the lapse in funding.
Separately, Trump’s hopes of taking home the coveted Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 were dashed earlier Friday, after the committee announced Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as this year’s winner.
Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said Machado was chosen as a unifying figure in Latin America, determined in her commitment to protecting democracy.
Trump made no secret of his desire to win the prize when he touted his role in helping to resolve at least seven conflicts — including the latest ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — since returning to office.
The president received his annual checkup Friday at Walter Reed Medical Center.
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