The White House said on Sunday that it reached a trade deal with China as the two countries negotiated for a second day in Switzerland. China has yet to comment on Sunday's talks.
"We’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters in Geneva. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said "substantial progress" had been made but stopped short of touting a full deal.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the United Kingdom -- the first in what the White House said it hopes will be a flurry of agreements while the reciprocal tariff pause is in effect. With UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on speaker phone in the Oval Office, the leaders conceded that they are still working out the details of the agreement.
Trump insists there will 'always' be a baseline tariff on trade partners
President Donald Trump said on Friday he wants to maintain a minimum 10% baseline tariff against trade partners, even after deals are made.
"Does that mean that countries offering zero tariffs won't get reciprocity?" a reporter asked.
"You are always going to have a baseline," Trump said. "I mean, there could be an exception at some point, we'll see. You know, somebody does something exceptional for us, that's always possible. "But basically you have a baseline of a minimum of 10%. And some of them will be much higher 40%, 50%, 60%, as they've been doing to us over the years."
President Donald Trump sits inside the Oval Office of the White House to sign executive orders, May 9, 2025.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters
May 09, 2025, 4:33 PM EDT
White House talks bringing white Afrikaner South Africans to US as refugees
With the first flights of white Afrikaner South Africans set to arrive as early next week, the White House was pressed on why bringing them to the U.S. as refugees is a priority for the administration -- as it is cracking down on other kinds of immigration.
"This group in South Africa has faced racial persecution," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in Friday's press briefing. She went on to claim their farmland is being taken away, though the law passed by South Africa earlier this year does not allow land to be expropriated without an agreement with the owner.
A man wears a Make Afrikaners Great Again cap in reference to the American MAGA as white South Africans supporting President Donald Trump in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, Feb. 15, 2025.
Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called it a "really exciting news story" as he argued President Donald Trump is returning to the refugee program's intention of providing a safe solution for individuals forced to leave their country due to conflict and not a "solution for global poverty."
"What's happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of what refugee program was created. This is persecution based on a protected characteristic, in this case, race," he said.
Miller said next week's flight is "just the beginning of what's going to be a much larger-scale effort. And so those numbers are going to increase."
-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart, Kelsey Walsh and Selina Wang
May 09, 2025, 4:08 PM EDT
Pentagon directs U.S. military to remove library books on diversity
The Pentagon has given the military service academies and the service’s senior service institutions, like the Army War College, until May 21 to identify and remove books from their libraries that touch on diversity, race, and gender issues.
The new memo by the Pentagon’s top personnel officer standardizes the process that had begun at the U.S. Naval Academy where 381 books had been removed from its library so it could be in compliance with Pentagon orders to follow the Trump Executive Order from January to eliminate “any program, element, or initiative that was established to promote divisive concepts…or gender ideology.”
The Pentagon memo will establish a temporary Academic Libraries Committee "comprised of knowledgeable leaders, educators, and library professionals" from within DOD who will help identify and "sequester" the offending books for further review. The memo said the review of books would be "deliberate" and conducted by "experts in the fields of education and the department's mission."
The Pentagon is seen in Washington, March 2, 2022.
Patrick Semansky/AP
The memo also includes an attachment that lists 20 official search terms to be used by the military’s academic institutions to find books that will be reviewed by the committed.
Among the 20 terms are: "Affirmative action," “Allyship", “anti-racism," "critical race theory”, discrimination”, “diversity in the workplace”, “diversity, equity, and inclusion”, Gender affirming care”, “gender dysphoria”, “gender expression”, “gender identity”, “gender nonconformity”, “gender transition, "transgender military personnel”, “transgender people” transsexualism”, “transsexuals”, and "white privilege.”
-ABC News' Luis Martnez
May 09, 2025, 3:43 PM EDT
Stephen Miller says admin 'actively looking' at suspending habeas corpus
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on Friday the administration was "actively looking at" suspending habeas corpus (a person's right to challenge the legality of their arrest or detention) as part of the administration's crack down on illegal immigration.
"Well, the Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the written habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion," Miller said as he gaggled with reporters at the White House. "So that's an option we're actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the court will do the right thing or not."
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller arrives to speak with the media outside the White House in Washington, May 9, 2025.
