Donald Trump’s tariffs hurting US business, Republican lawmakers warn – US politics live

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Peter Stone

A radical makeover at the US department of justice has seen key drives to fight corruption hamstrung in ways that could benefit US businesses operating abroad and foreign kleptocrats, including some Russian oligarchs.

The moves have sparked sharp criticism by former US prosecutors, transparency experts and top Democrats, who warn that the moves to cut back on anti-corruption efforts is a huge setback for American efforts to clean up global business practices and tackle the power of oligarchs and of authoritarian rulers.

Donald Trump’s US attorney general Pam Bondi – long an ally of the president – has moved fast to halt enforcement actions for six months under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that bars bribes by US businesses to win overseas deals, which some American firms have long charged gives certain foreign firms a competitive edge.

Trump sounded bullish while signing an executive order in February to halt the department’s FCPA investigations for six months to review policy guidelines. “It’s going to mean a lot more business for America,” Trump boasted, to the dismay of critics.

In another fast foreign shift at the DoJ, a Bondi memo last month indicated that two units aimed at fighting kleptocracy – including some major Russian oligarchs – were being disbanded with some lawyers redeployed to focus on new priorities involving fighting drug cartels and transnational crime.

US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms

Anna Betts

The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.

Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.

The watchlist is part of the Civicus Monitor, which tracks developments in civic freedoms across 198 countries. Other countries that have previously been featured on the watchlist in recent years include Zimbabwe, Argentina, El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates.

Mandeep Tiwana, co-secretary general of Civicus, said that the watchlist “looks at countries where we remain concerned about deteriorating civic space conditions, in relation to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression”.

The selection process, the website states, incorporates insights and data from Civicus’s global network of research partners and data.

The decision to add the US to the first 2025 watchlist was made in response to what the group described as the “Trump administration’s assault on democratic norms and global cooperation”.

Donald Trump has not treated Greenlanders with respect since expressing his renewed interest in acquiring the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island, Greenland’s prime minister was quoted on Monday as saying.

Trump reiterated his interest in acquiring the island during his address to Congress last Tuesday, painting a picture of prosperity and safety for the “incredible people” of Greenland, an autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, Reuters reported.

Trump reaffirmed that message in a Truth Social post early on Monday, writing: “We will continue to keep you safe, as we have since World War II. We are ready to invest billions of dollars to create new jobs and make you rich.”

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, told Danish public broadcaster DR in an interview aired on Monday: “We deserve to be treated with respect, and I don’t think the US president has done that recently since he took office.”

“I think that the recent things the American president has been doing means that people don’t want to get as close to (the US) as they might have wanted in the past,” he added.

“We need to draw a line in the sand and put more effort into (cultivating relations with) the countries that show us respect for the future we want to build,” said Egede, in comments aired a day before Greenland holds a general election.

Egede has repeatedly said that Greenland, whose population is only 57,000, belongs to its people and that it should decide on its own future. He supports full independence for Greenland.

Republican lawmakers warn Trump tariffs hurting US business

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

We start with news that Republicans are growing concerned that Donald Trump’s tariffs are hurting the US economy, with constituents telling them they are struggling financially.

Business owners, exporters and farmers have told lawmakers that Trump’s expanding trade war and threat of steep tariffs against Canada, Mexico and Europe are having a direct impact on business in the US, The Hill reports.

“The Canadian tariffs will definitely have a detrimental impact on the economy of Maine and on border communities in particular,” said Senator Susan Collins. “We have for example a major paper mill in northern Maine right on the border that gets its pulp from Canada.”

“That mill alone, which is by far the biggest employer in the region, employs 510 people directly. I’ve talked to the owner of that mill, the imposition of a 25% tariff could be devastating,” she added.

“I have every major industry in Kentucky lobbying me against them; the cargo shippers, the farmers, the bourbon manufacturers, the home-builders, the home sellers – you name it – fence manufacturers,” senator Rand Paul told The Hill.

“The bourbon industry says they’re still hurt from the retaliatory tariffs” during Trump’s first term, he said. “So do the farmers.”