WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will delay implementation of a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union from June 1 until July 9 to buy time for negotiations with the bloc.
That agreement came after a call Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who had told Trump that she “wants to get down to serious negotiations,” according to the U.S. president’s retelling.
“I told anybody that would listen, they have to do that,” Trump told reporters on Sunday in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to return to Washington. Von der Leyen, Trump said, vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.”
In a social media post Friday, Trump had threatened to impose the 50% tariff on EU goods, complaining that the 27-member bloc had been “very difficult to deal with” on trade and that negotiations were “going nowhere.” Those tariffs would have kicked in starting June 1.
But the call with von der Leyen appeared to smooth over tensions, at least for now.
“I agreed to the extension — July 9, 2025 — It was my privilege to do so,” Trump said on Truth Social shortly after he spoke with reporters on Sunday evening.
For her part, von der Leyen said the EU and the U.S. “share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship.”
“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” she said. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday indicated there was progress with Iran on its nuclear program and hinted that an announcement could come in the “next two days.”
He was notably more upbeat than the Omani mediator of the talks between the United States and Iran, who said Friday that the two nations made “some but not conclusive” progress in the fifth round of negotiations in Rome.
“We’ve had some very, very good talks with Iran,” Trump told reporters in northern New Jersey after leaving his golf club, where he spent most of the weekend. “And I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good.”
He emphasized that “we’ve had some real progress, serious progress” in talks that took place on Saturday and Sunday.
“Let’s see what happens, but I think we could have some good news on the Iran front,” Trump said.
Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, represented the U.S. at the talks at the Omani Embassy in Rome.
The two countries are discussing how to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting some economic sanctions that the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic.
President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to reinstate “common sense” school discipline, more states may follow and expand the authority of teachers and school officials to deal with disruptive students.
The order, signed in April, repeals prior federal guidance that encouraged schools to address racial disparities in discipline, arguing that such policies promoted “discriminatory equity ideology” and compromised school safety by pressuring administrators to underreport serious student misconduct.
In some states, new legislation already is trending toward giving teachers more authority to address student misbehavior.
In West Virginia, for example, a new law creates a structured process for responding to violent, threatening or disruptive behavior among students in grades K-6.
Under the law, a student exhibiting such behavior can be immediately removed from class, evaluated by counselors or behavioral specialists and placed on an individualized behavior plan. If there’s no improvement after two rounds of intervention, the student could be moved into a behavioral intervention program or an alternative learning environment.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, and supporters say the law empowers teachers to maintain safe classrooms.
“This legislation provides teachers with the tools to regain control of the classroom and ensure safe learning environments for our kids,” Morrisey said at the bill’s signing.
In April, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill referred to as the “Teacher’s Bill of Rights” with a bipartisan vote of 124-20.
That bill, now sitting in the Senate’s education committee, would significantly expand the grounds for out-of-school suspensions, allowing students to be suspended for repeated disruptions or threats beginning in third grade. It would reverse earlier changes that limited suspensions for younger students. It also would mandate that students making terroristic threats or assaulting school employees be placed in alternative education programs for at least 30 days.
Texas civil rights groups argue that the bill would impose a one-size-fits-all punitive approach, rather than addressing students’ developmental and behavioral needs.
Alycia Castillo, associate director of policy at the Texas Civil Rights Project and a former teacher, said state lawmakers are taking the wrong approach by mandating sweeping discipline policies for a state as diverse as Texas.
During the 2020-21 school year, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education, Black students faced the highest rates of disciplinary action across all categories — suspension and expulsion — among all racial and ethnic groups.
They were 39% more likely than white students to receive in-school suspensions, 70% more likely to face out-of-school suspensions, and 71% more likely to be expelled.
The disparities were even starker for Black students with disabilities, who experienced suspension and expulsion rates far exceeding those of both their white peers and non-disabled students.
Reviving old, harsh disciplinary policies risks disproportionately harming students of color, students with disabilities and those from low-income backgrounds, Castillo said.
“What works in Austin may not work in West Texas,” Castillo said.
“Children are naturally disruptive — that’s part of their development,” she added. “Excluding them only harms their growth into functional adults.”
Restorative justice models
In recent years, some other states have passed laws promoting restorative practices in schools, in which students and teachers work through problems and focus on repairing the harm caused by disruptions or conflict.
Michigan’s 2017 law requires schools to consider restorative approaches before suspensions or expulsions, aiming to repair harm rather than exclude students. Nevada began mandating restorative justice approaches in 2019, but scaled back that approach in 2023.
This year, Maryland passed a law requiring the state to establish “restorative practices schools,” specific schools with trained educators who use the approach in everyday discipline.
Kimberly Hellerich, an assistant professor at Sacred Heart University and a former K-12 teacher, said discipline policies should go beyond punitive measures to foster accountability and community healing.
“Adding restorative practices to accompany codes of conduct can allow students to recognize the impact of their actions on themselves, peers, the teacher, the class and the school community,” Hellerich said.
In her own classrooms, Hellerich used what she called “community circles” to guide students in processing behavior, offering apologies and rebuilding trust. “The apology served as a way to restore the student’s relationship with the entire class community,” she said.
Calls for a cultural shift on expectations
While lawmakers debate discipline procedures, other education advocates warn that an even deeper issue is unfolding inside classrooms: the gradual erosion of behavioral expectations and academic rigor.
Jessica Bartnick, co-founder and CEO of the Dallas-based mentorship program Foundation for C.H.O.I.C.E., said that declining school discipline and lowered standards are quietly undermining educational outcomes.
“Discipline is the backbone of effective learning,” Bartnick, who supports the Texas legislation, told Stateline in an email. “Without it, classrooms become chaotic, instructional time is lost and teachers are forced to shift their focus from instruction to behavior management.”
Bartnick said efforts to promote equity sometimes inadvertently lower behavioral standards and deprive teachers of the tools they need to maintain safe learning environments.
She also criticized lenient grading policies and unlimited test retakes, arguing that they diminish the value of preparation, responsibility and resilience.
“If students are shielded from the discomfort of failure, they are also shielded from the growth that comes with it,” she wrote. “If we want to prepare students for a world that will not offer endless second chances, we must return to a classroom culture grounded in discipline, responsibility, and rigor.”
Stateline reporter Amanda Hernández contributed to this report. Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached atrsequeira@stateline.org.
A school bus driver wears a face covering amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in El Paso on Nov. 17, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. (Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS)
In submitting her updated budget proposal in March, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs lamented the rising costs of the state’s school vouchers program that directs public dollars to pay private school tuition.
Characterizing vouchers as an “entitlement program,” Hobbs said the state could spend more than $1 billion subsidizing private education in the upcoming fiscal year. The Democratic governor said those expenses could crowd out other budget priorities, including disability programs and pay raises for firefighters and state troopers.
It’s a dilemma that some budget experts fear will become more common nationwide as the costs of school choice measures mount across the states, reaching billions of dollars each year.
“School vouchers are increasingly eating up state budgets in a way that I don’t think is sustainable long term,” said Whitney Tucker, director of state fiscal policy research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank that advocates for left-leaning tax policies.
Vouchers and scholarship programs, which use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition, are part of the wider school choice movement that also includes charter schools and other alternatives to public schools.
Opponents have long warned about vouchers draining resources from public education as students move from public schools to private ones. But research into several programs has shown many voucher recipients already were enrolled in private schools. That means universal vouchers could drive up costs by creating two parallel education systems — both funded by taxpayers.
In Arizona, state officials reported most private school students receiving vouchers in the first two years of the expanded program were not previously enrolled in public schools. In fiscal year 2024, more than half the state’s 75,000 voucher recipients were previously enrolled in private schools or were being homeschooled.
“Vouchers don’t shift costs — they add costs,” Joshua Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University who studies the issue, recently told Stateline. “Most voucher recipients were already in private schools, meaning states are paying for education they previously didn’t have to fund.”
Voucher proponents, though, say those figures can be misleading. Arizona, like other states with recent expansions, previously had more modest voucher programs. So some kids who were already enrolled in private schools could have already been receiving state subsidies.
In addition to increasing competition, supporters say the programs can actually save taxpayer dollars by delivering education at a lower overall cost than traditional public schools.
One thing is certain: With a record number of students receiving subsidies to attend private schools, vouchers are quickly creating budget concerns for some state leaders.
The rising costs of school choice measures come after years of deep cuts to income taxes in many states, leaving them with less money to spend. An end of pandemic-era aid and potential looming cuts to federal support also have created widespread uncertainty about state budgets.
“We’re seeing a number of things that are creating a sort of perfect storm from a fiscal perspective in the states,” said Tucker, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Last year, Arizona leaders waded through an estimated $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Budget experts said the voucher program was responsible for hundreds of millions of that deficit.
A new universal voucher program in Texas is expected to cost $1 billion over its next two-year budget cycle — a figure that could balloon to nearly $5 billion by 2030, according to a legislative fiscal note.
Earlier this year, Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill expanding the state’s voucher program. But last week, he acknowledged his own “substantial concerns” about the state’s ability to fund vouchers and its public education obligations under the constitution.
“I think the legislature’s got a very tall task to understand how they’re going to be able to fund all of these things,” he said in an interview with WyoFile.
Voucher proponents, who have been active at the state level for years, are gaining new momentum with support from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.
In January, Trump ordered federal agencies to allow states, tribes and military families to access federal money for private K-12 education through education savings accounts, voucher programs or tax credits.
Last week, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted in favor of making$20 billion available over the next four years for a federal school voucher program. Part of broader work on a bill to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, the measure would need a simple majority in the House and the Senate to pass.
Martin Lueken, the director of the Fiscal Research and Education Center at EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice measures, argues school choice measures can actually deliver savings to taxpayers.
Lueken said vouchers are not to blame for state budget woes. He said public school systems for years have increased spending faster than inflation. And he noted that school choice measures make up a small share of overall state spending — nationally about 0.3% of total state expenditures in states with school choice, he said.
“Public schooling remains one of the largest line items in state budgets,” he said in an interview. “They are still the dominant provider of K-12 education, and certainly looking at the education pie, they still receive the lion’s share.
“It’s not a choice problem. I would say that it’s a problem with the status quo and the public school system,” he said.
Washington, D.C., and 35 states offer some school choice programs, according to EdChoice. That includes 18 states with voucher programs so expansive that virtually all students can participate regardless of income.
But Lueken said framing vouchers as a new entitlement program is misleading. That’s because all students, even the wealthiest, have always been entitled to a public education — whether they’ve chosen to attend free public schools or private ones that charge tuition.
“At the end of the day, the thing that matters most above dollars are students and families,” he said. “Research is clear that competition works. Public schools have responded in very positive ways when they are faced with increased competitive pressure from choice programs.”
Public school advocates say funding both private and public schools is untenable.
In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are considering a major voucher expansion that would alter the funding structure for vouchers, potentially putting more strain on the state’s general fund.
The state spent about $629 million on its four voucher programs during the 2024-2025 school year, according to the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, which represents employees in school district finance, human resources and leadership.
The association warns proposed legislation could exacerbate problems with the “unaffordable parallel school systems” in place now by shifting more private schooling costs from parents of those students to state taxpayers at large.
Such expansion “could create the conditions for even greater funding challenges for Wisconsin’s traditional public schools and the state budget as a whole,” the association’s research director wrote in a paper on the issue.
In Arizona, Hobbs originally sought to eliminate the universal voucher program — a nonstarter in the Republican-controlled legislature. She has since proposed shrinking the program by placing income limits that would disqualify the state’s wealthiest families.
That idea also faced Republican opposition.
Legislators are now pushing to enshrine access to vouchers in the state constitution.
Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, the state’s 20,000-member teachers union, noted that vouchers and public education funds are both sourced from the general fund.
“So it almost immediately started to impact public services,” she said of the universal voucher program.
While the union says vouchers have led to cutbacks of important resources such as counselors in public schools, Garcia said the sweeping program also affects the state’s ability to fund other services like housing, transportation and health care.
“Every budget cycle becomes where can we cut in order to essentially feed this out-of-control program?” she said.
Katie Hobbs speaks at the Arizona Democratic Election Night Watch Party on Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering a massive overhaul of the National Security Council that will shrink its size and return many career appointees back to their home agencies, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with the reorganization.
The move is expected to significantly reduce the number of staff at the NSC, according to the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel matter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as national security adviser since early this month following the ouster of Mike Waltz, who was nominated to serve as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
The NSC has been in a continual state of tumult for much of the early going of Trump’s second go-around in the White House.
Waltz was ousted weeks after Trump said that he’d fired several NSC officials, just a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty.
The White House days into the administration sidelined about 160 NSC aides, sending them home while the administration reviewed staffing and tried to align it with Trump’s agenda. The aides were career government employees, commonly referred to as detailees.
This latest shakeup amounts to a “liquidation” of NSC staffing with both career government detailees on assignment to the NSC being sent back to their home agencies and several political appointees being fired from their positions, according to the person familiar with the decision.
A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the overhaul, first reported by Axios, was underway but declined further comment.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Military air traffic controllers lost contact with an Army helicopter for about 20 seconds as it neared the Pentagon on the flight that caused two commercial jets to abort their landings this month at a Washington airport, the Army told The Associated Press on Friday.
The aborted landings on May 1 added to general unease about continued close calls between government helicopters and commercial airplanes near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following a deadly midair collision in January between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.
In March, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that helicopters would be permanently restricted from flying on the same route where the collision occurred. After the May 1 incident, the Army paused all flights into and out of the Pentagon as it works with the FAA to address safety issues.
Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the head of Army aviation, told the AP in an exclusive interview that the controllers lost contact with the Black Hawk because a temporary control tower antenna was not set up in a location where it would be able to maintain contact with the helicopter as it flew low and rounded the Pentagon to land. He said the antenna was set up during construction of a new control tower and has now been moved to the roof of the Pentagon.
Braman said federal air traffic controllers inside the Washington airport also didn’t have a good fix on the location of the helicopter. The Black Hawk was transmitting data that should have given controllers its precise location, but Braman said FAA officials told him in meetings last week that the data the controllers were getting from multiple feeds and sensors was inconclusive, with some of it deviating by as much as three-quarters of a mile.
“It certainly led to confusion of air traffic control of where they were,” Braman said.
Former FAA and NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said he thinks the air traffic controller did the right thing by ordering the two planes to go around that day.
“The Army, to me, seems to be attempting to sidestep some of their responsibility here. And it just sounds like excuses to say ‘Hey, we had our ADS-B on and that should have been enough for them to see where we were.’ That sounds too simplistic to me,” Guzzetti said.
The FAA declined to comment on whether its controllers could not get a good fix on the Black Hawk’s location due to their own equipment issues, citing the ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pushing to have the agency modernize its air traffic control systems and equipment, which has failed controllers responsible for Newark Liberty Internal Airport’s airspace at critical moments in recent weeks.
In the initial reporting on the aborted landings, an FAA official suggested the Army helicopter was on a “scenic route.”
But the ADS-B-Out data, which the Army shared with the AP on Friday, shows the crew hewed closely to its approved flight path — directly up the I-395 highway corridor, which is called Route 5, then rounding the Pentagon.
FAA air traffic controllers at the airport aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 during the Black Hawk’s initial flight toward the Pentagon because they realized both aircraft would be nearing the Pentagon around the same time, Braman said.
Because of the 20-second loss of contact, the Pentagon’s tower did not clear the Black Hawk to land, so the helicopter circled the Pentagon a second time. That’s when air traffic controllers at the airport decided to abort the landing of a second jet, a Republic Airways Embraer E170, because they did not have a confident fix on the Black Hawk’s location, Braman said.
Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.
This image provided by the U.S. Army shows a screenshot of data from the Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast, or ADS-B, of the flight path of Army Black Hawk “PAT23” on a May 1, 2025, flight that led to air traffic controllers aborting the landings of two commercial jets. (U.S. Army via AP)
Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal privacy laws when it ordered states and vendors to turn over five years of data about food assistance program applicants and enrollees, including their names, birth dates, personal addresses and social security numbers.
The lawsuit “seeks to ensure that the government is not exploiting our most vulnerable citizens by disregarding longstanding privacy protections,” National Student Legal Defense Network attorney Daniel Zibel wrote in the complaint. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and Mazon Inc.: A Jewish Response to Hunger joined the four food assistance recipients in bringing the lawsuit.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a social safety net that serves more than 42 million people nationwide. Under the program formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays for 100% of the food benefits but the states help cover the administrative costs. States also are responsible for determining whether people are eligible for the benefits, and for issuing the benefits to enrollees.
As a result, states have lots of highly personal financial, medical, housing, tax and other information about SNAP applicants and their dependents, according to the lawsuit.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order March 20 directing agencies to ensure “unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs” as part of the administration’s effort to stop “waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos.”
That order prompted Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the USDA to ask states and electronic benefit vendors to turn over the info earlier this month. Failing to do so may “trigger noncompliance procedures,” the USDA warned in a letter to states.
Some states have already turned over the data, including Alaska, which shared the personal info of more than 70,000 residents, according to the lawsuit. Other states like Iowa plan to turn over the information, the plaintiffs say.
They want a judge to declare the data collection unlawful, to order the USDA to destroy any personal information it already has, and to bar the agency from punishing states that fail to turn over the data.
A banner with a photograph of President Donald Trump hangs near the entrance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture building in Washington, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Bates marks the second time this month that a judge has struck down a Trump executive order against a prominent firm. The decision in favor of Jenner & Block follows a similar opinion that blocked the enforcement of a decree against a different firm, Perkins Coie.
“Like the others in the series, this order — which takes aim at the global law firm Jenner & Block — makes no bones about why it chose its target: it picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed,” Bates wrote.
The spate of executive orders announced by Trump sought to impose the same consequences against the targeted firms, including suspending security clearances of attorneys and barring employees from federal buildings. The orders have been part of a broader effort by the president to reshape American civil society by targeting perceived adversaries in hopes of extracting concessions from them and bending them to his will.
Several of the firms singled out for sanctions have either done legal work that Trump has opposed, or currently have or previously had associations with prosecutors who at one point investigated the president.
In the case of Jenner & Block, the firm previously employed Andrew Weissmann, who served as a prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that investigated ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Bates had previously halted enforcement of multiple provisions of the executive order against Jenner & Block and appeared deeply skeptical of its legality during a hearing last month.
In his ruling Friday, he said he was troubled that the orders retaliated against the firms for the “views embodied in their legal work” and seek “to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers.”
Two other firms, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey, have also asked judges to permanently halt orders against them.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — President Donald Trump green-lit disaster relief for eight states on Friday, assistance that some of the communities rocked by natural disasters have been waiting on for months.
The major disaster declaration approvals allow Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas access to financial support through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Several states requested the aid in response to damage from a massive storm system in mid-March.
“This support will go a long way in helping Mississippi to rebuild and recover. Our entire state is grateful for his approval,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, whose state experienced 18 tornados between March 14 and 15.
Mississippi residents in the hard-hit Walthall County expressed frustration earlier this month over how long they had been waiting for federal help. The county’s emergency manager said debris removal operations stalled in early May when the county ran out of money while awaiting federal assistance.
FILE – Severe storm damage is shown off 96th Street North between Garnett Road and Mingo Road Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP, File)
Earlier this week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to expedite Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request for disaster assistance, after being pressed on the issue by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican.
“That is one of the failures that FEMA has had in the past is that people who incur this kind of damage and lose everything sit there for months and sometimes years and never get the promised critical response that they think or that they believe they should be getting from the federal government,” Noem said.
FEMA did not immediately respond to questions about what prompted the flurry of approvals.
FILE – Family friend Trey Bridges, 16, climbs a mountain of tornado debris to help the Blansett family recover items not destroyed by Saturday’s tornado, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Tylertown, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s Royal Palace said Friday that Princess Elisabeth, who is first in line to the throne, is waiting to find out whether she can return to Harvard for her second year after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ban on foreign students at the university.
The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.
“We are looking into the situation, to see what kind of impact this decision might have on the princess, or not. It’s too early to say right now,” said the palace’s communications head, Xavier Baert.
Baert said that Princess Elisabeth, aged 23, has completed her first year of a graduate school program at Harvard and would spend the summer back in Belgium. “And we’ll have to see what happens next year,” he said.
The princess is the first of four children born to King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and has been studying for a Master in Public Policy. Last year, she obtained a degree in history and politics at Lincoln College at Oxford in the U.K.
FILE – Belgium’s Crown Princess Elisabeth, center, takes part in a three-day exercise at an Army Commando Training Center in Marche-les-Dames, Belgium, Monday, July 26, 2021. (Frederic Sierakowski, Pool Photo via AP, File)
Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.
The university filed a lawsuit on Friday in federal court in Boston, saying that the Trump administration’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”
FILE – Count Felix and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium during Prince Christian’s 18th birthday gala dinner at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
This week on MichMash, Democratic House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) joins the show to talk about ongoing tensions between parties within the Michigan Legislature.
Before that, host Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow discuss news this week that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated campaign finance laws when announcing her bid for governor inside a state-owned building.
Benson has denied the violation, saying she had planned to make the announcement outside the building after filing her paperwork, but moved it to the lobby because it was freezing cold.
“The law does exist for a reason,” said Gorchow. “[To] prevent government officials from using taxpayer resources for political purposes. Benson’s campaign should’ve rented a facility to hold this press conference. The cost to taxpayers was zero…but Republicans will argue that Benson conveniently ignored the law she’s supposed to enforce, when it came to her own activities.”
Speaking with Roth and Gorchow, Rep. Puri said the Michigan Legislature is “at a crossroads for what the vision of Michigan could be,” calling much of what the governing body accomplished this year unproductive and “political theater.”
“For things to get done there needs to be true bipartisanship,” he said. “Until that changes we will continue to see the gridlock we’ve been seeing.”
Roth noted the strained relationship between Puri and Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township). Puri said he attempted to have a handful of conversations with Hall early on to encourage healthy bipartisanship, but it hasn’t led to meaningful dialogue.
“I’m not a reporter, I’m not President Trump, I don’t think [Hall] has much interest in talking to me,” Puri said. “But jokes aside, you know I think, again, Speaker Hall is engaged in being an actor of political theater. I am taking a much more pragmatic approach here; I understand that we are in split government.”
Puri said with billions of dollars in federal cuts looming over the state, it’s more important than ever for state legislators to work together to find bipartisan solutions.
“There’s a whole host of things that we should be doing to protect Michiganders, from the tariffs, the economic uncertainty…there’s a lot of problems headed Michigan’s way, but here we are continuing to talk and fill the room with distractions and just an unserious approach,” he said.
–WDET Digital Editor Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
The Republican-led state House adopted a resolution Thursday to hold Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in contempt for failing to fully comply with a legislative subpoena.
This political battle has been raging for months as GOP lawmakers accuse Benson of obstructing their efforts to examine election processes while she says Republicans’ actions are undermining election integrity.
“So at this moment, I believe there is no other path than introducing a resolution to allow this chamber to consider whether the Secretary of State should be held in contempt,” said Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Twp.), who chairs the House Oversight Committee. “And I am certain that we are within the law. I am certain that we are within provisions that the people of the state of Michigan deserve and want out of their government.”
The resolution cleared the House on a 58-47 party-line vote with five Democrats absent.
Rep. Penelope Tserneglou (D-East Lansing), who sits on the oversight committee, accused Republicans of needlessly stoking a controversy. She called the resolution “an attack on election integrity.”
“The only documents that have not been produced are the ones being reviewed for sensitive information that could compromise the integrity and security of our elections,” she said. “We must stand united in defense of our democratic institutions and reject this dangerous resolution.”
Benson said her office has already released more than 3,300 pages of material to the committee and to the public. But she said her office will not release unvetted and unredacted material that would imperil election security if made public.
“This is government rooted in bullying and chaos and I’m tired of it,” she said during an online press conference following the vote. “It’s not only ineffective but it is dangerous.”
It is not clear what the next steps will be. Benson says she would like to have a judge or some other impartial mediator step in to help resolve the impasse.
Michigan bills to further prevent the use of ticket-buying bots received a House committee hearing Wednesday.
Ticket bots are often used to snatch up event tickets by getting around purchase limits, waiting periods, or other safeguards.
In high profile cases, like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, they led to exorbitant prices on the resale market.
State Representative Mike McFall (D-Hazel Park) is a package co-sponsor. He says bots are a problem the state needs to address.
“This harms the entertainment industry and harms consumers by creating an unnecessary financial barrier. Our bills would provide the attorney general with the necessary tools to investigate and act against those who are misusing bots to excessively purchase tickets,” McFall said during the House Judiciary Committee hearing.
The federal government has already outlawed using ticket bots to scam the system. But supporters of the Michigan bills say they’re necessary to ensure scammers quickly face consequences.
“The problem is, sometimes at that federal level there’s so many things going on, it’s hard to rein this in, which is why we kind of want to deal with it here in the state of Michigan, so the AG’s office has a little more teeth than we can act within our state,” said Rep. Mike Harris (R-Waterford), another package co-sponsor.
Under the bills, using bots to abuse the ticket-buying process could lead to a $5,000 fine per ticket gained.
Similar bills were introduced last legislative term but didn’t make it to the governor.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Eli Savit is trying to reshape how justice works in Michigan — starting with what happens inside a prosecutor’s office.
As Washtenaw County’s top prosecutor, he ended cash bail for most cases, declined to charge some low-level drug offenses, and launched a transparency effort to track racial disparities in prosecution.
Supporters of progressive prosecutors like Savit say they’re helping to fix a broken system, while critics say they’re putting public safety at risk.
Now, we’ll see what kind of appetite Michigan has for this approach as Savit announced last week that he’s running to be Michigan’s next Attorney General. Other candidates so far include former federal prosecutor Mark Totten, seeking the Democratic nomination, and Republican attorney Kevin Kijewski. Dana Nessel, Michigan’s current attorney general, is term-limited and can’t run for reelection.
Savit joined The Metro on Wednesday to talk about what kind of justice he believes Michigan needs next.
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used a White House meeting to forcefully confront South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing the country of failing to address Trump’s baseless claim of the systematic killing of white farmers.
Trump even dimmed the lights of the Oval Office to play a video of a far-left politician chanting a song that includes the lyrics “kill the farmer.” He also leafed through news articles to underscore his point, saying the country’s white farmers have faced “death, death, death, horrible death.”
Trump had already cut all U.S. assistance to South Africa and welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the U.S. as refugees as he pressed the case that a “genocide” is underway in the country.
Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of whites being targeted for their race, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country with a high crime rate.
“People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety,” Trump said. “Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”
Ramaphosa pushed back against Trump’s accusation. The South African leader had sought to use the meeting to set the record straight and salvage his country’s relationship with the United States. The bilateral relationship is at its lowest point since South Africa enforced its apartheid system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994.
“We are completely opposed to that,” Ramaphosa said of the behavior alleged by Trump in their exchange. He added, “that is not government policy” and “our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying.”
Trump was unmoved.
“When they take the land, they kill the white farmer,” he said.
Trump appeared prepared to confront Ramaphosa at the start of the meeting while journalists were present. Videos were cued up on a large TV set to show a clip of an opposition party leader, Julius Malema, leading an old anti-apartheid song.
The song has been contentious for years in the country because of its central lyrics “kill the Boer” and “shoot the Boer” — with Boer a word that refers to a white farmer. Malema, featured in the video, is not part of the country’s governing coalition.
Another clip played showed white crosses on the side of a road, described as a memorial for white farmers who were killed. Ramaphosa seemed baffled. “I’d like to know where that is, because this I’ve never seen.”
Trump kicked off the meeting by describing the South African president as a “truly respected man in many, many circles.” He added: “And in some circles he’s considered a little controversial.”
Ramaphosa chimed in, playfully jabbing back at a U.S. president who is no stranger to controversy. “We’re all like that,” Ramaphosa said.
Trump issued an executive order in February cutting all funding to South Africa over some of its domestic and foreign policies. The order criticized the South African government on multiple fronts, saying it is pursuing antiwhite policies at home and supporting “bad actors” in the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.
Trump has falsely accused the South African government of rights violations against white Afrikaner farmers by seizing their land through a new expropriation law. No land has been seized and the South African government has pushed back, saying U.S. criticism is driven by misinformation.
The Trump administration’s references to the Afrikaner people — who are descendants of Dutch and other European settlers — have also elevated previous claims made by Trump’s South African-born adviser Elon Musk and some conservative U.S. commentators that the South African government is allowing attacks on white farmers in what amounts to a genocide.
The administration’s concerns about South African policies cut even deeper than the concerns about white farmers.
South Africa has also angered Trump over its move to bring charges at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Ramaphosa has also faced scrutiny in Washington for his past connections to MTN Group, Iran’s second-largest telecom provider. It owns nearly half of Irancell, a joint venture linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ramaphosa served as board chair of MTN from 2002 to 2013.
Ramaphosa came into the meeting looking to avoid the sort of contentious engagement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy experienced during his February Oval Office visit, when the Ukrainian leader found himself being berated by Trump and Vice President JD Vance. That disastrous meeting ended with White House officials asking Zelenskyy and his delegation to leave the White House grounds.
The South African president’s delegation included golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, a gesture to the golf-obsessed U.S. president. Ramaphosa brought Trump a massive book about South Africa’s golf courses. He even told Trump that he’s been working on his golf game, seeming to angle for an invitation to the links with the president.
Luxury goods tycoon and Afrikaner Johann Rupert was also in the delegation to help ease Trump’s concerns that land was being seized from white farmers.
At one point, Ramaphosa called on Zingiswa Losi, the president of a group of South African trade unions, who told Trump it is true that South Africa is a “violent nation for a number of reasons.” But she told him it was important to understand that Black men and women in rural areas were also being targeted in heinous crimes.
“The problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it’s about crime,” Losi said. “We are here to say how do we, both nations, work together to reset, to really talk about investment but also help … to really address the levels of crime we have in our country.”
Musk also attended Wednesday’s talks. He has been at the forefront of the criticism of his homeland, casting its affirmative action laws as racist against whites.
Musk has said on social media that his Starlink satellite internet service isn’t able to get a license to operate in South Africa because he is not Black.
South African authorities say Starlink hasn’t formally applied. It can, but it would be bound by affirmative action laws in the communications sector that require foreign companies to allow 30% of their South African subsidiaries to be owned by shareholders who are Black or from other racial groups disadvantaged under apartheid.
The South African government says its long-standing affirmative action laws are a cornerstone of its efforts to right the injustices of the white minority rule of apartheid, which denied opportunities to Blacks and other racial groups.
Following the contentious exchange in front of the cameras, Trump hosted Ramaphosa for lunch and further talks.
Ramaphosa, speaking to reporters following his White House visit, downplayed Trump’s criticism, adding he believes “there’s doubt and disbelief in (Trump’s) head” about his genocide charge. He insisted they did not dwell on Trump’s concerns about white farmers in their private conversation.
“You wanted to see drama and something really big happening,” Ramaphosa told reporters following his White House visit. “And I’m sorry that we disappointed you somewhat when it comes to that.”
–Reporting by Gerald Imray and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press. AP writers Seung Min Kim, Chris Megerian, Darlene Superville, Sagar Meghani and Ali Swenson contributed.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would like to cap her second term by landing a massive microchip factory for Michigan before she leaves office at the start of 2027.
Whitmer delivered a brief address from a pristine, high-tech training lab at Kettering University in Flint, where she set the “ambitious, but attainable goal.”
“This would be a transformational, once-in-a-century investment,” she said. “It would change the destiny of an entire region and state – making it an economic magnet for ambitious families to move here and to put down roots, and it’s exactly what we need.”
She said landing chip factory, colloquially called a fab, would build on Michigan’s industrial legacy by bringing a semiconductor supply chain to the state.
“We cannot sit on our hands while other states and countries, without our manufacturing advantages, pass us by,” she said.
The Democratic governor said thousands of construction and modern factory jobs are at stake. The governor did not name a specific project or outline a plan, but she mentioned speaking to President Donald Trump at a White House dinner about a project in Genesee County, which is creating an advanced manufacturing zone.
“It’s nearly 1,200 square acres and it is a perfect opportunity to attract the type of investment that the governor was talking about today,” said Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. “Something that would create thousands of jobs, create good-paying jobs, provide billions of dollars of investment.”
Whitmer has faced pushback from Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature on her signature business incentives program. Critics say state incentive programs have lacked transparency and failed to deliver on promised jobs. House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) has proposed moving money from the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund to pay for roads. Progressives have also line up against the incentives, arguing public money should not be spent on corporate welfare.
“There are some on the far left and the far right in Lansing who say we should unilaterally disarm, just get rid of those tools and let the jobs go to Georgia, Kentucky, Arizona or, god forbid, Ohio,” said Whitmer. “I say, hell no.”
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “no tax on tips” pledge became a catchphrase for his 2024 campaign. Now it’s inching closer to reality.
The idea is firmly planted in the sprawling tax cuts package Republicans are hashing out in the House and aiming to pass in the coming days. And in a surprise move, the Senate voted this week to unanimously approve the idea.
The proposal has widespread support from the public, lawmakers in both parties and employers who believe such a law will bring relief to the working class. But many critics say that it would come with an enormous cost to the government while doing little to help the workers who need it most.
Here’s a look at the proposal and its potential impact:
What’s in the ‘No Tax on Tips’ provision?
It would create a new tax deduction eliminating federal income taxes on tips for people working in jobs that have traditionally received them, as long as they make less than $160,000 in 2025. The Trump administration would publish a list of qualifying occupations within 90 days of the bill’s signing.
Only tips reported to the employer and noted on a worker’s W-2, their end-of-year tax summary, would qualify. Payroll taxes, which pay for Social Security and Medicare, would still be collected.
FILE – Then-Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump dances at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
If adopted, the proposed deduction is set to expire after four years. Congressional budget analysts project the provision would increase the deficit by $40 billion through 2028. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy group, projects the cost would be $120 billion over a decade if the tip exemption is made permanent.
What did Trump say during the campaign about eliminating federal taxes on tips?
Trump made the promise during a campaign stop in Las Vegas, where the service sector drives the economy, as part of his pitch to working-class voters struggling with rising costs.
Segments of his base eagerly spread the word, writing the catchphrase on their restaurant receipts or talking to their barbers about it while getting a trim.
Trump offered few details at the time, but later made similar pledges to eliminate taxes on other forms of income, including overtime wages and Social Security payments. Those ideas, along with a tax deduction for auto loan interest, are also included in the GOP’s budget bill.
FiLE – Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
“No tax on tips” was later embraced — with limits — by the influential Culinary Union, which represents Las Vegas Strip hospitality workers, Nevada’s Democratic senators and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival.
How could it impact workers?
Experts say some middle-income service workers would benefit from a tax break but warn that it could potentially heighten inequities.
“If your goal is to help the poorest service workers, this is probably not the way to do it,” said Michael Lynn, a professor of services marketing at Cornell University whose research largely focuses on tipping and other consumer behavior.
About a third of tipped workers make too little to owe income taxes. Those workers won’t benefit from the tax break, so its benefits will accrue to tipped workers with higher incomes, Lynn said.
“It’s overlooking non-tipped workers who need the help just as badly, and it’s giving the benefit predominantly to the least needy of the tipped workers,” Lynn said.
The median age for tipped workers is 31, a decade younger than the median non-tipped worker, and they tend to make lower wages, according to the Yale Budget Lab.
Among tipped workers who make enough to owe Uncle Sam, the average tax cut would be about $1,800, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
The National Restaurant Association is among industry groups that have been strong backers of a “No Tax on Tips” provision. When reached for comment Wednesday, a spokesperson pointed The Associated Press to a previous statement following the legislation’s introduction in January.
“Eliminating taxes on tips would put cash back in the pocket of a significant number of workers in the restaurant and food service industry and could help restaurant operators recruit industry workforce,” Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs for the association, said at the time — calling the No Tax on Tips Act “sensible legislation” that he said includes “fiscally responsible” protections.
And in Nevada, the Culinary Workers Union specifically credited the state’s two Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, with working with Republicans to push the legislation forward — and called on the House to “get this done for working families.” The union represents about 60,000 casino and hotel workers across the state, including bartenders, food servers and cocktail servers who rely on tips.
But other groups representing workers shared criticism of the legislation.
One Fair Wage, an advocacy group made up of nearly 300,000 service workers and over 1,000 restaurant employers pushing to raise the minimum wage, said the measure would offer “moderate relief for some” but is part of a tax package that “just helps the richest while leaving the vast majority behind.”
“For all the bipartisan celebration … this bill is a distraction from the real fight,” Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, stated — again stressing that it was time to raise the minimum wage. The nonprofit also calls for ending tip credits that allow lower base wages for tipped workers in many states.
Cooper reported from Phoenix. AP Writer Rio Yamat contributed to this report from Las Vegas.
FILE – A waiter carries drinks, Friday, April 18, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
With just weeks to go until New York City’s mayoral primary, one of the leading candidates, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, finds himself under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. He seems to think it might actually help.
In a new advertisement released Wednesday, the Cuomo campaign seized on the investigation as a potential selling point to voters, calling it an attempt by the Trump administration to “interfere with New York City’s election.”
“Why? Because Andrew Cuomo is the last person they want as mayor,” the ad says. “If Donald Trump doesn’t want Andrew Cuomo as mayor, you do.”
It added that Cuomo would be a mayor who stood up to “bullies.”
The investigation, confirmed to The Associated Press Tuesday by a person familiar with the matter, is centered on the truthfulness of statements Cuomo made to Congress last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as it spread through nursing homes. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In other times, revelations so close to an election that a major candidate was the subject of a criminal probe might mean political doom.
But while some of Cuomo’s opponents in the Democratic primary pounced, accusing the former governor of perjury during his Congressional testimony, others said they were disturbed by what they characterized as the political weaponization of federal law enforcement.
The Justice Department recently launched an investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has battled Trump in civil court, over paperwork related to a home she helped a relative buy in Virginia. It filed criminal charges against a Democratic member of Congress for jostling with federal agents as they arrested the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey outside an immigration detention center. The Secret Service interviewed former F.B.I. director James B. Comey about a message critical of Trump that he posted on social media.
Trump’s Justice Department also scuttled a criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a Trump ally on immigration policy.
Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic state lawmaker who is running for mayor, said that while he believed Cuomo had lied to Congress, “Donald Trump cannot be trusted to pursue justice.”
“While I believe New Yorkers should reject the disgraced ex-Governor at the ballot box, the Trump administration’s actions are dangerous,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Cuomo questioned over handling of report about nursing home deaths
Cuomo, who touts his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic on the campaign trail, has been dogged by a short-lived state directive that temporarily prevented nursing homes from refusing to accept patients recovering from the virus. The policy, intended to help alleviate hospital overcrowding, was reversed after criticism that it might accelerate virus outbreaks in nursing homes.
Amid the scrutiny, Cuomo’s administration substantially understated deaths in nursing homes in its public reports for several months, fueling more criticism that it was engaged in a cover-up.
Cuomo was grilled on the subject by a congressional panel last year, with the group saying it had evidence that Cuomo had reviewed, edited and drafted parts of a state health department report on nursing home deaths. Cuomo told the panel he was not involved in the report, but then later said he did not recall being involved.
The panel referred Cuomo to the Biden administration’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution over accusations that he lied to Congress, but no charges were brought. Months later, Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, then re-sent the referral to the Justice Department after Trump took office, releasing a statement saying Cuomo “must be prosecuted.”
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in an email that “Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political.”
The Justice Department has declined to comment. Jeanine Pirro, who has been a harsh critic of Cuomo’s pandemic nursing home response from her perch as a Fox News host, was recently appointed as the new leader of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Pirro had unsuccessfully challenged Cuomo in a 2006 state attorney general race.
Probe may not change many people’s votes, former party leader says
Basil Smikle, former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, predicted that the investigation might not lead to many people changing their votes.
“If you’re a Cuomo voter, you’ve already made up your mind that you’re OK with all of the stuff that’s in his past,” he said. “I don’t know if this changes things much.”
That could change though, he said, if Cuomo were to be charged and it became clear that a criminal case would interfere with his ability to serve as mayor.
Still, the probe has allowed some of Cuomo’s opponents to hammer the former governor for, in their view, being insufficiently critical of Trump on the campaign trail.
“Andrew Cuomo believing he may need a pardon for committing perjury explains his incessant kissing up to Donald Trump,” said city Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against Cuomo.
The current mayor, Adams, who dropped out of the Democratic primary but is still running for a second term on an independent ballot line, told reporters Wednesday that he wouldn’t comment on the investigation.
“I’m not going to do to him what others did to me,” he said. “I’m going to allow the investigation to take its course.”
FILE – Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during the New York City Mayoral Candidates Forum at Medgar Evers College Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II,File)
A new survey by the University of Michigan finds confidence in the U.S. economy is steadily eroding.
Researchers say the widely-watched Consumer Sentiment Index has shown a sharp decline throughout this year.
The director of the survey, Joanne Hsu, told WDET those responding have a somber view of the nation’s financial future.
Listen: Consumer Sentiment Index highlights widespread anxiety amid economic uncertainty
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Joanne Hsu: One of the huge factors that we’re hearing from consumers is that they’re worried about the impact of trade policy on the economy. This month we had over 2/3 of consumers telling us spontaneously about the impact of tariffs. And largely speaking, these concerns are not positive. People who mentioned tariffs are really worried about inflation coming back. They’re worried that unemployment is going to get worse. It’s not just about tariffs being high. After all, we did capture a few days of interviews after the pause on China tariffs. They’re really worried about uncertainty, unpredictability and instability with policy. They know it makes it really hard for businesses to plan and for consumers to plan as well.
Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: I understand that this is the lowest that you have seen the Consumer Index be in three years?
JH: That is correct. We are near historic lows. Consumers are really feeling quite negative about the economy across multiple dimensions, their personal finances, buying conditions for big-ticket items, business conditions and labor markets. It’s very loud and clear across demographics and across aspects of the economy.
QK: If it’s been going down for a number of years then that would include the previous occupants of the White House. Have you noticed a difference among consumers since the Trump administration took over from the Biden administration?
JH: The sentiment did rise right after the election. There was a temporary post-election bump. But in December, as Trump started talking more about his planned tariff policy, that’s really when sentiment started to take a turn for the worse. And when we look at the impact from the major policy announcements that happened, tariffs on our North American neighbors, reciprocal global tariffs, after each of these consumer sentiment worsened. Again, the major reason for this is people are concerned that inflation is going to come roaring back. And inflation has been the number one thing on people’s minds for several years now. In 2022, when we hit the all-time historic low, inflation was raging. Consumers have been telling us loud and clear since then that they’re really worried about the cost of living.
QK: Is there any positives you can take from what you’re seeing in the index?
JH: I’d say the positive thing is that it hasn’t gotten that much worse from last month. We had three consecutive months of very, very steep decline. So the fact that it didn’t tank further this month, I think, should be welcome news. The other thing is that consumers are bracing for the impact of tariffs, but they don’t actually believe that inflation has already gotten out of control. They recognize that inflation slowed over the last couple of years. Of course, they remain frustrated by high prices.
We had historically low sentiment in 2022 but consumers were still willing to spend despite that lack of confidence. One of the big differences between then and now are consumer views of labor markets and their incomes. After the pandemic labor markets were very, very strong. Consumers’ incomes were very reliable. So in spite of the fact that they felt terrible about the economy they were willing to spend because they had the income to support it. Today, it’s different. Consumers are starting to tell us that their incomes are getting weaker. The expected probability of job loss has gone up. We have 2/3 of consumers expecting unemployment to worsen in the year ahead. That labor market confidence we saw three years ago just isn’t here anymore, which does not bode well for consumer spending going forward.
Editor’s note: This interview was re-aired on The Metro on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Listen to the Metro segment below.
More stories from The Metro on Tuesday, May 20, 2025:
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Login
