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Trump 2nd term live updates: Trump defends tariffs, declines to comment on Ukraine aid

Trump said tariffs will be the "greatest thing we've ever done as a country."

Last Updated: March 9, 2025, 8:31 PM EDT

President Donald Trump is defending his decision to pause some tariffs to Canada and Mexico for another month -- a notable reversal after imposing historic levies on the key U.S. trading partners earlier this week, causing markets to tumble.

On Friday, Trump signed more executive orders at the White House before he convened a first-ever cryptocurrency summit with industry leaders.

Mar 05, 2025, 12:22 PM EST

Federal workers call out Trump's joint address for not focusing on human impact of government cuts

Current and former federal workers, speaking on a Zoom call Wednesday organized by the Federal Unionists Network, responded to President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress by criticizing the president for not focusing on the workers losing their jobs or the programs being cut in the governmental reductions.

"The one thing that he [Trump] did say that was true was when he finally admitted that Elon Musk is the one who's in charge of DOGE and when he got everyone to stand up and clap for the richest man in the world who's in the process of stealing Americans' data right now and stealing their government from them right now. And that's just really, it's frankly disgusting," Paul Osadebe, a union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees and a federal attorney, said.

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress in front of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Vice President JD Vance at the U.S. Capitol, Mar. 4, 2025 in Washington.
Win McNamee/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Chris Wicker, a veteran who had been laid off from his role as deputy director of the Minnesota Small Business Administration Office, was a guest of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at the joint address, which he framed as "basically a campaign rally."

Wicker pointed to what he did not hear from Trump: "I didn't hear anything that appealed to the broader public and as a fired federal worker, I didn't hear anything about how I was going to be able to continue my public service..."

Tiffany Montes, who had been fired from her role at the National Park Service, said that she had been hoping to hear some remorse from the president over the job cuts.

-- ABC News' Oren Oppenheim

Mar 05, 2025, 11:59 AM EST

Elon Musk to join Senate Republicans for closed-door lunch Wednesday

Elon Musk will join Senate Republicans during their closed-door lunch at the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, a person familiar confirms.

This comes less than one week after a contingent of Senate Republicans huddled with Musk at the White House.

Musk is separately expected to speak with House Republicans at 7 p.m.

Elon Musk salutes as he is recognized by President Donald Trump during Trump's address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Mar. 4, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

--ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Mar 05, 2025, 11:11 AM EST

Musk PAC puts $1M behind national TV ad touting Trump: 'America is back'

Billionaire Elon Musk's political action committee, America PAC, has placed its first-ever $1 million nationwide TV ad, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The 60-second ad will run in the Washington media market and across the country during the week after Trump's joint address to Congress, the source familiar with the buy told ABC News.

Notably, the ad begins by attacking former President Joe Biden, showing clips of him stumbling on the stairs while boarding Air Force One. A voice-over states, "After four long years of humiliation, of failure at home and embarrassment abroad. Our long national nightmare is finally over."

Elon Musk, center, listens as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Mar. 4, 2025.
Win Mcnamee/Pool via AP

The ad then echoes some of what Trump highlighted in his joint address, claiming the president has "delivered the lowest level of illegal immigration in history." America PAC does not mention DOGE or Musk by name in the ad, but the ad appears to allude to their work, stating: "He's draining the swamp, slashing billions in waste at home, while closing the spigot of American tax dollars to foreign regimes."

Musk spent roughly $250 million on his pro-Trump super PAC, America PAC, in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. According to Federal Election Commission filings, Musk was the largest donor of the 2024 election cycle to either party.

-ABC News' Will Steakin

Mar 05, 2025, 10:35 AM EST

Changes to Canada, Mexico tariffs could be announced Wednesday: Commerce secretary

On Bloomberg TV, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that President Donald Trump is expected to announce changes to the tariffs on Canada and Mexico as early as Wednesday afternoon.

"There are going to be tariffs, let's be clear. But what he's thinking about is which sections of the market that can maybe, maybe he'll consider giving them relief until we get to, of course, April 2," Lutnick said in the interview.

April 2 is the day the Trump administration is set to announce their reciprocal tariffs.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick looks on as President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Mar. 3, 2025.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

Lutnick reinforced that the tariffs currently in place on Canada and Mexico are about trying to lessen the amount of fentanyl crossing the southern and northern border.

"The president is listening to the offers from Mexico and Canada. He's thinking about trying to do something in the middle, he's thinking about it. We're talking about it," Lutnick said. "We're going to -- when I leave here, I'm gonna go talk about it with him, and I think early this afternoon or this afternoon, we expect to make an announcement. And my my thinking is it's going to be somewhere in the middle."

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

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