The US Chamber of Commerce has urged Donald Trump to implement a “tariff exclusion process” to stop the economy falling into a recession. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has lifted the lid on his “intense” time at the White House as he prepares to exit. Follow a White House press briefing below.
Thursday 1 May 2025 14:30, UK
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We’re now hearing from the White House’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who has been sticking to the brief of today’s press briefing.
He’s gone into detail on what Trump has done to “secure values, culture and our way of life from the unwavering assault from the radical left”.
He turns to air traffic controllers, who he claims were “being hired and promoted based on race and gender, not their ability to conduct our nation’s air traffic”.
That’s something Trump also claimed after a crash between a US Army helicopter and a commercial airliner in Washington in January, which killed 67 people.
He also hits out at Harvard, which we know is in a fight with the Trump administration.
The university sued the administration after it rejected a list of demands from the White House and had $2.2bn of government funding frozen.
Karoline Leavitt has now taken to the podium in the White House briefing room.
She immediately begins by discussing the natural resources deal signed by the US and Ukraine.
“We saw yet again why president Trump is our dealmaker in chief, we secured a historic agreement to establish the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund,” she said.
“This is the first of its kind economic partnership for the reconstruction and long-term economic success of Ukraine that both will greatly benefit from.”
She says the US securing a “free, peaceful and sovereign future for Ukraine” through the deal.
While we wait for the briefing to get under way at the White House, the US Chamber of Commerce has urged the Trump administration to implement tariffs exclusions to stop the country falling into a recession.
The group has asked trade officials Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer to automatically lift tariffs on all small business importers and on all products that “cannot be produced in the US”, our US partner network NBC News reports.
The business organisation says that is needed to keep the US economy from inflicting “irreparable harm” on small businesses and to “stave off a recession”.
The intervention from the US Chamber of Commerce, which says it represents three million small business owners, comes a day after it was announced that the US economy shrank 0.3% from January to March, its worst performance for three years.
… we’ll have to wait a little longer as we’ve just heard the briefing will now be starting at 2pm UK time.
We’ll be hearing from Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt in the next few moments.
She is hosting a press briefing at the White House with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on “restoring common sense”, the day after it was announced the US economy shrank 0.3% from January to March.
You can watch live in the stream at the top of this page, and we’ll be providing text updates too.
The US economy has shrunk for the first time in three years but Donald Trump is blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the country’s poor economic performance at the start of the year.
US correspondents Martha Kelner and Mark Stone discuss the impact a struggling economy could have on Trump’s popularity.
Plus, as Trump holds another fawning meeting of his Cabinet, are comparisons to a king at court becoming more accurate?
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Elon Musk has told reporters that he’s in the process of stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to focus on his businesses.
He is of course the chief executive of Tesla, and the company’s stock has plunged since Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The US president told Musk during yesterday’s cabinet meeting that he was welcome to stay in government “for as long as he wants”.
Musk said after an “intense” three months – when he occasionally slept at the White House at Trump’s invitation – he now expects to work on DOGE projects only one or two days a week.
But he also lifted the lid on his role going forward, saying he intends to keep the “comically tiny office” he was assigned on the top floor of the West Wing.
He told reporters that’s where he played video games on a large monitor he had hooked up to his computer.
Trump would call late an night and say “make sure you get some ice cream from the kitchen”, Musk said, adding “don’t tell RFK”.
Kamala Harris took aim at Donald Trump’s “wholesale abandonment” of US ideals during her biggest speech since her election defeat.
The former vice president accused Trump of “the greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history”.
Those comments came on the day it was revealed that the US economy shrank 0.3% from January to March, its worst performance for three years.
Trump spent much of yesterday deflecting the blame onto Joe Biden, repeatedly saying it’s “Biden’s economy, not Trump’s”.
During her 15-minute speech last night, Harris warned “things are probably going to get worse before they get better”.
“They are counting on the notion that if they can make some people afraid, it will have a chilling effect on others,” she said.
“But what they have overlooked is that fear is not the only thing that’s contagious. Courage is contagious.”
We’re once again expecting to see Donald Trump out and about today – more details on that in a moment.
In the meantime, we’ll hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in the next hour.
She’s due to hold a press briefing at 1.30pm UK time, which we’ll be updating you on.
At 4pm UK time, we expect to see Trump at an event marking the national day of prayer at the White House.
He’ll also be delivering a commencement speech at the University of Alabama later today, where he will be speaking at spring graduations.
Welcome back to our live US coverage.
We’ll resume our updates shortly – but first, here’s a rundown of the key updates from the past day:
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Trump latest: Act now to stop recession, US Chamber of Commerce urges Trump – Sky News
