Trump aides draft proposal for 20% tariffs on ‘most imports’ to US as Liberation Day deadline looms: Live – UK Times

Kid Rock joined Donald Trump in the Oval Office Monday as the president signed an executive order that he says will help curb ticket scalping.

“Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years — no matter what your politics are — knows that it’s a conundrum,” the singer said.

The order, which is designed to stop “price-gouging by middlemen,” directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that scalpers offering tickets at prices above their face value comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules.

White House aides have drafted a proposal to impose 20 percent tariffs on most imports into the U.S., three sources told the Washington Post early on Tuesday.

Despite Donald Trump claiming on Monday evening that he had “settled” on his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the sources said that several options remain on the table with no final decision being made.

One of the options would see import taxes raised on products from almost every country, per The Post.

The White House is also weighing an order that would apply a different tariff rate to individual countries, according to the sources.

The U.S. Department of State has made a rare intervention in British politics, warning of its “concerns about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom”.

The department issued a statement on X highlighting fears about the prosecution of anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt.

It said she faces criminal charges for offering conversation with patients seeking abortions within a legally prohibited “buffer zone” outside a clinic.

“We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression,” the State Department’s dedicated democracy, human rights and labour (DRL) account posted.

“US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” It added. “However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”

Archie Mitchell has the full details.

Elon Musk said that he was “stressed” about the Wisconsin Supreme Court election at an 11th-hour tele-town hall on Monday.

“There’s a good chance it decides whether Republicans or Democrats control the House of Representatives,” Musk explained.

He later issued a dire warning: Democrats could take control of the presidency, and claim a supermajority House, Senate, and Supreme Court.

“This would be catastrophic and it would destroy the agenda for reform. It would make it almost impossible for the reforms that are underway to take place,” Musk continued. “I’m really asking from the bottom of my heart here, please go out and vote.”

“To be honest, I’m pretty stressed about it,” he added.

On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin will cast their ballots in the highly contentious and consequential election – and the most expensive judicial battle in U.S. history with more than $90 million in funding being poured into the race.

Musk has donated an estimated $20 million into Schimel’s campaign coffers. The election is being regarded as one of the first major tests of the second Trump term.

A government official has warned that ABC’s broadcast license could be at risk as Disney faces an investigation into its alleged efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in hiring as the Trump administration continues its attempt to curb the practices.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr told Fox News that these practices at Disney, ABC’s parent company, could amount to discrimination.

“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr said in an interview on Monday.

Steffie Banatvala has the full details.

Speaking from the Oval Office, the president told the press that he had “settled” his tariff plans, giving very little information away.

Trump’s advisers, however, believed that the president had not yet committed to a set strategy, sources told the Wall Street Journal. According to the sources, Trump’s aides were caught off guard after being under the impression that conversations remained fluid.

As Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” looms, Gold prices hit a record high at $3,148.8 per ounce on Tuesday morning.

Mounting uncertainty and fears of stagflation are, in part, behind the precious metal’s rally, causing traders to bolt toward a stable asset.

Concerns over a U.S. recession are also boosting the demand for gold, with Goldman Sachs estimating a 35 percent chance of it happening within the next 12 months.

Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariff plans remain largely unknown despite the president stating that he’s “settled” on his strategy.

Trump has repeatedly promised to roll out reciprocal dollar-for-dollar tariffs on nations that levy duties on U.S. goods for Wednesday on what he calls “Liberation Day.”

On Monday evening, the president told reporters in the White House that “I’ve settled, yeah,” providing little further detail after being pressed on his sweeping tariff agenda, amid growing fears that he may foment a global trade war.

“Relatively speaking, we’re going to be very kind,” he added.

A Cornell PhD student who was threatened with an immigration arrest during an ongoing constitutional lawsuit against the Trump administration announced on Monday he was fleeing the country.

“Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs,” Momodou Taal wrote on X. “I have lost faith I could walk the streets without being abducted.”

“I feel like a stranger in my country,” his attorney Eric Lee added in a separate statement on X. “What is America if people like Momodou are not welcome here?”

Taal, a citizen of the UK and The Gambia, is one of three academics who sued the Trump administration earlier this month, alleging a pair of January executive orders have the effect of unconstitutionally threatening to deport non-citizens who protest the administration and its allies like Israel.

Donald Trump has again suggested that “there’s a way” for him to run for a constitutionally-barred third term as president.

“People are asking for me to run,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday evening. “I don’t know, I haven’t looked into it. They do say there’s a way you can do it. But I don’t know about that.”

During an interview with NBC News Sunday, Trump told Kristen Welker that “there are methods” to enable him to stay in office for an unconstitutional third term and stated that he was “not joking” about considering another four years in the White House.

While heading back to Washington, DC, on board Air Force One on Sunday evening, the president stated that it would actually be “sort of a fourth term” claiming that the 2020 election – which he lost to Joe Biden – was “rigged.”